Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A New Mayan Calendar + Numbers Poem by Stephen Bunch

This Lawrence writer continues to engage my attention with his wit and finesse. I see mathematics interpenetrating every aspect of my day, and he riffs on this. Thanks to him for writing this and for granting permission to print it here. Stephen Bunch 's new chapbook Preparing To Leave is reviewed at this website, with purchase information from the press:
http://www.thelivesyoutouch.com/touchjournal/Publications/Bunch.html

52
 
A Mayan epoch, cards
in a deck, weeks
in a year, the atomic
weight of chromium,
not the “Korean chrome”
on the straight-eight
Pontiac, not the atomic
weight on Eniwetok,
while Nixon played
Checkers. Eisenhower's
first, Lucy's first, no
lynchings for the first
time since 1882,
but shortly Boeing's
bombers excavating Vietnam,
back to the stone age, ivories
pounded, all the white
notes, shaking that love
shack, baby, the hexagram
that directs, "Keep still, no
blame," shuffle and deal.