By The Numbers
Copyright 2001 by Jon Gill

Surely he was a successful one
He’d known how to get a buck or two
And he’d been out since quarter to three
And now it was almost four
Alone, he gave himself a high five
And promised to be home by six

He headed home at ten to six
From the rat race he knew he’d won
He took a left on highway five
And thought about where he was going to
And tried to remember what for
And why his watch said three

The clock on the church also said three
And three was nowhere near six
He turned around quickly, for
He realized that only one
Clock so far had displayed to
His weary eyes fifty-past-five

He took his left five
And smacked himself. “Only three!
What a fool! Where was I going to?”
He knew that the ten-to-six
Clock had been a broken one,
And now there was something he was late for.

He knew the clock had moved quickly for
Him to have been out there that long, for five
Times he had looked at the one
That was broken. It had not been three
Hours, and it was not almost six.
And he was very late, too.

The meeting that he was late to
Was of utmost importance, for
He was planning to purchase six
Bouquets consisting of five
Roses each, then putting three
In the car and three in the house of a special someone.

            Of those three in the house he took one
            Bouquet of five and wrote a note to
            Her and sat to wait for her until six.


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