Number the Innumerable

March 2, 1998

There it is. The date.
Number the innumerable.
Pin it on the wall
A day equals a number on a square of paper.

Tomorrow we will file it,
Or toss it.

What else shall we do with a day?
A gift beyond measure
A slice of the infinite…

Number it
Name it
Assign a category
List it on neat little lines
Bind it, Box it
Put a lid on it and put it away
Retrieve it
Toss it

At our convenience, of course.
What else can we label?

God-- Oh Yes!
Put names and faces on nameless and faceless things
List and number the Numberless
Measure the Infinite

A child-- Oh yes!
From the moment of birth we begin it,
The naming and numbering
Labeling, categorizing, organizing
Listing and limiting

This universe of possibilities that sucks
at our breasts.

Yes, set a boundary for the boundless
Make rules for wild and untamable things
Bring out our ropes and tie them up
Bind them to us forever

Find a pencil and paper, Quick!
Note a hundred inconsequential details
Write up a contract

And buy them watches and pencils and pads
So they can join the naming and numbering as soon as possible!

Try NOT to take a moment
To glimpse the infinite, boundless, indescribable beauty and possibility
Of the Soul
Whose cries emanate from the vibrations of unknown places,
Whose echoes of laughter will never end

Who cannot be bound by ropes
or described by numbers
Who can never by contracted.

Close your eyes.
It would all be too much.
A number and a box is so much easier.

Besides, I have other important things
to do…
Laundry
Phone calls
Exercise
Shopping

God! I don’t want to do it!

I need time!
Time to cry and ache with
other dreaming fools

Pull the lid off my box for
the infinite soul that
Demands tears
Demands time

Begs for life beyond the box.

Let me spend this day languishing in
the ecstasy
Of unanswerable questions and unquenchable yearnings

Ponder the infinite
Daydream and Sigh

All Day