We Do The Math

 

The arithmetic of atrocities,

who does that math,

counting lives like

piles of cordwood destined

for the funeral fire.

 

Are atrocities algebraic,

x plus y plus Time equals

a mathematical formula

for the horror and traumas

we have inflicted.

 

Do we count with our fingers,

with our toes,

with an abacus,

slide ruler,

calculator or computer?

 

Math is the constant,

counting the rolling heads,

the bodies buried under

heaps of other dead bodies,

neatly accounted for.

 

For History needs its numbers,

to show who won,

who lost,

the cost,

the wages of sin.

 

The ridged, cold

numbers; orderly and

succinct, filed and

stamped, in long

symmetrical rows of carnage.

 

We can put a price on it,

a number can be affixed,

we know how to do it,

we’re practiced

and very good at math.

 

We do the Math.