jdubqca

the number inside the number

I chased this little ball around
for a few hours
maybe days
and it never really dawned on me
that I should be doing anything else

I daydreamed in this place
with no time on the walls
with no time outside the many windows
where hills turned into a thin line
blending greens into blues into reds

I used to think that rainbows
have no end
but it was obvious as I wandered
from room to room
my thinking had been backward

Every day I tore off a new number
from a pad glued to the wall
and each day the number was the same
or at least I used to always
think that was the case

you got it all wrong
someone said from afar
it’s not the number that counts
but the number inside the number
that is if you can figure it out

And so I pondered the idea
and eventually solved the number
inside the number
but once I did I was taken away
to a smaller place without time



january two thousand seventeen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved