Mystery Of The Numbers Poem by Louis Kasatkin

What do the numbers do when calculators are switched off?

And when they are switched back on again,

will the sums add up the same as before?

Have numbers taken to redefining themselves,

their values, their own worth in the hidden realm

where we can't see them?

Are addition, subtraction, division, multiplication

set in their ways?

Inviolable.invariable, inexorable or are they

a matter of conjecture, interpretation, uncertainty?

Only the numbers themselves can truly know

what the consequences are of those policies

and principles decided upon in secret conclave;

far from our gaze, beyond our mortal comprehension

the sum of two plus two hesitates to give an answer.