a while there, every day,
we could rely
on such cheap
and plentiful
wooden reminders:
one plus one
is equal to two;
fair and fowl
always cancel
each other. But
when the desperate
times hit, the first
orders we got were
to ratchet-up
the abstract,
restrict access
to the rational.
Overnight, belts
grew tighter, skins
thinner, blood redder;
while, outside
in the cold, all the poor
devils' kids
had only dry sticks
to learn basic
addition with.
And to make
matters worse:
stick-plus-stick
wasn't always
two sticks;
for one or two
minds, starved and
crammed into a corner,
stick-plus-stick
equalled fire.
