(no subject)

[tristfully]

'Numbers'

I like the generosity of numbers.
The way, for example,
they are willing to count
anything or anyone:
two pickles, one door to the room,
eight dancers dressed as swans.

I like the domesticity of addition—
add two cups of milk and stir—
the sense of plenty: six plums
on the ground, three more
falling from the tree.

And multiplication’s school
of fish times fish,
whose silver bodies breed
beneath the shadow
of a boat.

Even subtraction is never loss,
just addition somewhere else:
five sparrows take away two,
the two in someone else’s
garden now.

There’s an amplitude to long division,
as it opens Chinese take-out
box by paper box,
inside every folded cookie
a new fortune.

And I never fail to be surprised
by the gift of an odd remainder,
footloose at the end:
forty-seven divided by eleven equals four,
with three remaining.

Three boys beyond their mother’s call,
two Italians off to the sea,
one sock that isn't anywhere you look.

Mary Cornish

What I like about numbers is that they remind me I'm an absolute moron and I think that's good for a person (from time to time).

[Wyatt]

How do you feel about numerology?

Comments

[infamously]

According to the math, you and I are meant to be. Although, I'm not sure whose math, as I definitely did not fill out an entry for myself.

[tristfully]

There's something poetic about the fact that my best match is an amalgamation of how my friends view you. A collective idealized version, maybe.

[infamously]

I wouldn't trust their judgment. I received two cards, with no overlap between them, which makes me think that "idealized version" is about as credible as Gildersleeves' methodology.

[tristfully]

Perhaps you have a match for each of your moods.

[infamously]

And no one a match for all of my moods.

Isn't it better that you know the numbers are a sham? Better to not to put your faith in anyone's judgment but yourself.

[numerologest]

The numbers ain't a sham. The numbers are numbers. All the other stuff might be woo, though.