The Invention of Fractions
by Jessica Goodfellow from A Pilgrim's Guide to Chaos in the Heartland
God himself made the whole numbers: everything else
is the work of man.
—Leopold Kronnecker
God created the whole numbers:
the first born, the seventh seal,
Ten Commandments etched in stone,
the Twelve Tribes of Israel —
Ten we've already lost —
forty days and forty nights,
Saul's ten thousand and David's ten thousand.
'Be of one heart and one mind' —
the whole numbers, the counting numbers.
It took humankind to need less than this;
to invent fractions, percentages, decimals.
Only humankind could need the concepts
of splintering and dividing,
of things lost or broken,
of settling for the part instead of the whole.
Only humankind could find the whole numbers,
infinite as they are, to be wanting;
though given a limitless supply,
we still had no way
to measure what we keep
in our many-chambered hearts.
© Concrete Wolf Chapbook Series
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
i like this one.
ReplyDeletewas this from writer's almanac?
i haven't checked in lately. sorry.
its like not working has made me...busier. odd.
Yes, this is a Writer's Almanac poem. I really liked it too.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen you guys in awhile, hope the puppy and the lack of the 9 to 5 are treating you well.