Measure
How do you measure
the tone of a number,
how six sounds different than three?
Or the way purple feels,
the kind of purple when you hear
the word quintuplet?
Is it the same as when the butter knife
levels the pillow of flour
from the steel hash-marked cup
on its way to making bread?
Or the error inherent
in weighing a puppy?
There is a comfort
in the precision of numbers.
I remember my brother in the driveway
with our yellow measuring stick
comparing his shadow
to the shadow of the tree,
able to discern the tree’s height
by solving for x.
Every tall object in sight
succumbed to his exactness of measurement
as if assigning value would temper
some unsolved mystery within.
Let’s compare and contrast
our children by measuring
intelligence
and hide the person behind
a numerical score
of safety.
How else could we determine
the sound of sunshine
the color of a leap
the value of another?
Lovely.