Written by Susan Fritz | Sunday, January 31st, 2021Posted in Blog
Barcelona DCBrusselsDan being Dan in Barcelona, Washington, D.C., and Brussels, respectively.
I’m not a math star,
but 4 times 3 is 12
3 times 4 equals 12
Facts in 5-7-5 form
don’t make reality softer to see…
or the past fade from 20/20.
Rearview mirrors making things appear closer.
Sometimes so close you can almost…
But almost isn’t actual.
As my 8th grade history teacher repeatedly said—
the one who survived war in Vietnam and probably more; the one who cracked stomach-turning jokes about spitting into canned peas when he worked in a factory assembly line (a job none of us clothed and comfortable kids could fathom);
the one who taught us things we could not yet absorb:
“Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”
Math is exact.
5 plus 7 is 12
15 minus 3
24 slash 2
So many ways to count the years…
wonder the “what ifs”.
A multitude more to appreciate.
The sentiments sometimes stick,
but numbers try not to lie.
I’m no mathematician (you can check my work),
but 12 equals a million memories remembered,
hundreds-upon-thousands of Futures lost.
12 is a combination of numbers
which represent what words cannot.
