passages

for Silas

The significance of becoming 12 is obvious

To the one whose birthday is happening

And for the rest of us it is a reminder

Biology does not count by base ten decades.

The transition from childhood to adult begins

As we learn to live in a changing body

With those around us changing how they see us

The boy who will be 12 is becoming a young man.

As his inches measure up a foot, my feet multiply by six

As 72 approaches I am becoming an old man

Passing along a world with so many wrongs

Needing the bold optimism of youth to right.

I think there will be a cake or some other dessert

To set aflame a baker’s dozen candles

Including one to grow on, as tradition says

With a secret wish that the child might transform us.

If I were placing the dozen candles

Plus one at the center that makes the total prime
I can see so many options for a geometric design

Because 12 is a very divisible number.

Some say that is why commerce sells by the dozen

And time periods count easily on the 12 hour clock face

But perhaps it is also an inheritance from the Sumerians

Base 12 number system thousands of years old.

The ancestors built up what is good in the world we have

Inventing such a better way of life than before

Now our problems in that context are opportunities to solve

And history says we will figure it out.