Saturday, February 3, 2018

Northeast Pinellas February 3, 2018

album

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.

Friday, February 2, 2018

Thursday, February 1, 2018