we relied on
cheap, plentiful wooden reminders:
one plus one is equal to two,
fair and foul
can cancel each other.
But when the hard times hit,
the orders we got
were to ration the abstract and
restrict the rational.
Belts grew tighter, skins thinner
ashy and redder
in the cold, and all the poor devils'
kids had to use
dry bony sticks
to do their simple math with instead.
Only problem was:
stick-plus-stick wasn't always
two sticks; once or twice, it
was fire.
was fire.
