Numbers
The mathematics, and the meaning
Each number read twice: the real arithmetic and geometry of it, and the numerology and tarot it carries. They turn out to rhyme more than you'd think.
The empty bowl before anything is poured, the hush that holds all the other numbers.
The first mark on an empty page, where everything starts and nothing has split off yet.
The first companion, the line between two points, the card that learns to hold a secret.
The first number that makes a shape: two points pull, three points hold a room.
Four is the first room you can stand in: the square, the table, the steady floor under everything.
Five is the hand, the held breath before change, the number that will not sit still.
The first perfect number, and the shape of care: harmony, home, the weight of giving.
The hush after six, the lone prime that builds nothing flat, the seeker who walks off alone.
The first perfect cube, the number that loves to be halved, and the patient queen of the worldly suit.
The last single digit, the number that always returns to itself, the threshold before ten.
Two ones standing side by side, a doorway with no door, the number that refuses to settle into ten.
The builder's number, where the dream gets hands and the blueprint meets the dirt.
Two threes stacked, the teacher's number, where care learns to stand without breaking.