The Michael Toy

Poems and Other Programmes


carry the one


it was still a little fun
recess and art projects
when we learned
against our wills
to carry the one

carry the one and you can add any two numbers
even ones with a hundred digits
such power in our small hands
the universe at our feet

the one was so light
so easy to carry
light as a pencil shaving
you could hardly tell it had weight at all

today when i carry the one
the effort of lifting it from the bottom of one column
to the top of another
exhausts me

i keep at it
because it is still true
if i can carry the one
i can do anything

Path: More Good Poems