Number Man

(for the ghost of Johann Sebastian Bach) He was born to wonder about numbers. He balanced fives against tens and made them sleep together and love each other. He took sixes and sevens and set them wrangling and fighting over raw bones. He woke up twos and fours out of baby sleep and touched them back to sleep. He managed eights and nines, gave them prophet beards, marched them into mists and mountains. He added all the numbers he knew, multiplied them by new-found numbers and called it a prayer of Numbers. For each of a million cipher silences he dug up a mate number for a candle light in the dark. He knew love numbers, luck numbers, how the sea and the stars are made and held by numbers. He died from the wonder of numbering. He said good-by as if good-by is a number.