The Virtues of Division In our blessed digital age Everything is Either or On or off In or out Plus or minus Up or down Left or right Top or bottom Win or lose Positive or negative But mainly One or none Forgetting for the moment that in the matter of digits There are really ten or twenty Depending And that you can’t count on Nothing to exist I suppose you can explain the growth of trees The evolution of a pout A sudden whimsy or a summer haze As the culmination of bureaucracy – Left right, left right, left right Forward march – If you’re so inclined Unless perhaps you chance to hear Caruso on a gramophone And grow suspicious of the virtues of division, However fine ________________________________________________________________________ Emanuel E. García, Leaf Thoughts, One Hundred Poems, 2013 |