The Singing Cactus That Learnt Arithmetics Poem by Paul Hartal

Can a cactus sing, or talk?
It seems it can: Reality is stranger than fiction.

But wait:
It turns out that plants can not only sing and talk
But they are even capable of learning arithmetics.

When I first heard about this I was quite incredulous.
However, a scholarly book by Peter Tompkins
and Christopher Bird, "The Secret Life of Plants",
reveals the amazing world of vegetation.

The description of plants in dictionaries
as living organisms that have no power to move,
is just an academic myth. Plants actually move a lot
and in every direction.

One of the most stunning discoveries
About the arcane world of plant life comes
from the work of Dr. Ken Hashimoto,
an electronics researcher from Tokyo and his wife.

They succeeded to enter into conversations
with a living cactus.

They accomplished this by wiring the plant
to sophisticated electronic equipment.
With the help of cutting edge technology
and tender love, eventually they were able
to communicate with the cactus.

In the course of their contact with the cactus,
the Japanese researchers managed to hear
an amplified reverberating tone
of the desert plant, which sounded like a pleasant
and joyous song.

Astoninishingly, the Hashimotos not only talked
With the cactus but, among other things,
they even taught it to count up to twenty.

When they asked it, for example,
How much is two plus two? the cactus responded
With murmuring dins that registered in the record
as four distinct sound units.