When The Math Fails To Add Up Justmultiply Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

I tried to divide and the math did not work out,
For they told me God said we must multiply.

And then do what, this tall order, I asked.
And fill the earth, they replied.

Still impossible to do it alone,
For I need a plan to get me there.

Then I tried to subtract thinking, I could, then they stopped me,
God instructed us to add for subtracting takes away.

Then I decided to leave the math, for I was no whiz kid,
Just knew words, for I was born and raised on them by mama.

Then the teacher said I was not clever, if I could not count,
Then I tried and found that I got one plus one made four
For that was how big my family was.

Then they asked me how this could happen in the math world,
I told them that I had never walked on that world.

All I had done was multiply and add and end up with four.
For I loved a number that sits as if it is cross legged.

Like me when I am trying to be smart when I am with him,
I mean, this boy that is talking to me of love lately.

They do not know he is not very smart like me,
But knows how to do the high, low and side jump.

He has been to the olympics of the math world,
And failed to get even a medal for being last.

Yet in the world of sports he got four,
For he can do the thing called athletics.

For he counts the holes on the jump pole backwards,
And cheats counting four when it is two jumps.

His is not the athletics of the math world,
where his pen and mine dry up with ink on the nib.

How then will I know I need a reverse mortgage,
When the time comes to pay for the present one?

I cannot add or balance the check book that heaven gave me,
With these words that drop pennies into my purse.

I decided to ask the boy for he jumps and counts backwards,
Always reversing and surely ready for the reverse mortgage.

I think one thing I can ask of you reader,
Let us hire my friend for you too if you cannot count.

For only with him counting our tuppence on earth,
Can we can laugh math, sing math, all the way into the ark.

For Noah could only count up to the number two.
That is why God told him to build the ark.

Me and you, we will survive in this world,
While those who can count waste time spending
Timeless hours counting beyond the number two,
Like that was the only thing to do.