NUMBER MAN

 (for the ghost of Johann Sebastian Bach)He was born to wonder about numbers.

 

He balanced fives against tens

and made them sleep together

and love each other.

 

He took sixes and sevens

and set them wrangling and fighting

over raw bones.

 

He woke up twos and fours

out of baby sleep

and touched them back to sleep.

 

He managed eights and nines,

gave them prophet beards,

marched them into mists and mountains.

 

He added all the numbers he knew,

multiplied them by new-found numbers

and called it a prayer of Numbers.

 

For each of a million cipher silences

he dug up a mate number

for a candle light in the dark.

 

He knew love numbers, luck numbers,

how the sea and the stars

are made and held by numbers.

 

He died from the wonder of numbering.

He said good-by as if good-by is a number.