What Counts


I am 5
even
& odd

I am 2
lover
& loved

I am 9
a cat's
last life

I am 3
with you
& him
& me.

I am 4
bloody
tortured
chambers.


I am 6
thrown
but not
winning.

I am 10
stone laws
broken in
the sand.

I am 7
days in
heavens
way.

I am 1
time more
for the last
encore.

I am 0
sound
plus a
silence.

I am
counting
counting
counting
down.

Never was
counted on
by you of
course.

Not even
once not
even once.

With me
you were
fingerless,

and I was
a burning
abacus.

Wanting wanting is a forest fire
of touching snugged inside a pair
of Chinese finger-puzzled gloves.

Subtracted
down into
the womb,

my love is
remaindered
to a secret birth.

Hear my
baby sum
screaming
screaming
screaming
out his verse.

The number
of the days
left always,

adding
nothing,

completly
nothing,

ever
being
added,

but this,

the it
of it,

to

the is
of is.





John G.Hall(C)2006