book of numbers

We women know--
that to everything,
there is assigned a number.

From the creatures gathered two by two before the flood,
to the 666 of the beast,
each thing has a value before God.

Let men talk
and talk
and talk.
We know the natural math of the rings within each tree,
growing silently and for their own purposes.

We women can feel it--
23 pairs to a strand inside us,
three seasons gone before the first cry comes.

Here is the real importance of numbers--
how much yeast to a loaf,
how much sugar to the flour,
and how may places to set for those we call ours.

Meanwhile, men count borders,
build-ups,
and days left to linger in hell
when the things worth counting have been obliterated.
_________