For this week's optional prompt on Poets And Storytellers United, we are invited to write poetry or prose which includes numbers.
Here is mine :
When I was born, ages ago, the hospital did not number my birth.
As a student I was known by my Roll Number.
During exams my presence was proved again by a number on the attendance/answer sheet.
At work place it was the Employee Code
Post retirement, thankfully, the Employee Number remains valid.
As a citizen I am again identified by a number.
We have, it seems, become prisoners of numbers.
Life has become a series of checklists wherein we have to tick numbered boxes to express our likes and dislikes, aspirations and assertions, compliances and rejections and sometimes detestations and dejections. Feelings are now being quantified whereas at one point of time I was taught that they are immeasurable.
During surveys, our experiences are required to be rated on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 - highest the number maximum is the satisfaction quotient.
However, strangely, lesser the number in the ranking scale the greater is the extent of corruption in a country.
At the fag end of life, I realise the anomalies of number.
My days on earth are numbered , I know.
I may finish the race within the count.
I may lose it before.
Or, by a weird stroke of (ill)luck, I may outnumber the years allotted to me.
It's not in my hand.
But one thing that I fervently wish for is not to lose the count of time.
Shared with Poets And Storytellers United
"I am not a number! I am a free man!" Nice write Geeta ЁЯСП
ReplyDeleteThank you Shaun. Glad that you have an identity of your own.
DeleteLife is a numbers game, whether we accept it or not. The probability that one sperm and one egg will become a living child is slim—we already defied the odds. Once fully understood, that fact alone has the power to fuel how we live the decades we’re given.
ReplyDeleteWell said.
DeleteOr, by a weird stroke of (ill)luck, I may outnumber the years allotted to me.
ReplyDeleteIt's not in my hand.
But one thing that I fervently wish for is not to lose the count of time.
A grand close Vanderloost! We are blessed with numbers!
Hank
Thank you very much Hank. We are blessed or shackled with numbers - whichever way you wish to see that.
DeleteWithin space and time, numbers define us from the moment of birth when our clock starts ticking.
ReplyDeleteIt's this week's prompt that reinforced the importance of number to me.
DeleteMay we never lose the count of time or ignore any of the things that truly count.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that Rommy.
DeleteI think when we pass over the control we think we have over numbers is very liberating - it felt like that here and was wonderful to read - Jae
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Jae fir your kind appreciation
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