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Divisible by One and Myself


Divisible by One and Myself

I am divisible only by one and myself
Having achieved the age of nine more than three-score-and-ten
By reason of a strength lost in its achievement

I am a Pledge of Allegiance
One man, indivisible, except by one and himself,
With liberty and justice and a 79th inning stretch

We who divide history by one and ourselves
Stride the centuries almost whole
Dividing time with our primeness

Seventy-nine ago, in 1931, Georgia O'Keefe painted Cow Skull
And they finished the Empire State Building, while in Tacoma
Gus and Jennie wondered at what they had done

Two seventy-nines ago, Harriet Beecher Stowed
"Uncle Tom's Cabin", and also in Boston
Emma Snodgrass was arrested for wearing pants

Philadelphians threw British ships out of the harbor and
Three seventy-nines later, Tea Partiers are still throwing
Things out:  sense and logic, taxes and constitutions
All into the harbor!  On three, heave!  Fish it out later!

Five long measures ago, Henry VIII said Anne Boleyn 
Was a loose woman and relieved her of her head
While Henry ordered that a Bible be placed in every church

In 746, the Monastery at Tegernsee in Bavaria
Began brewing its own beer, sixteen long steps ago
Illustrating how durable is the cause of religion true

Twenty times my life ago, Sophocles performed Oedipus the King,
And another time before, Indians learned to extract sugar from
Sugar cane, leaving the truly useful arts for the monks at Tegernsee

At other seventy-nines ago, Hannibal came back to Carthage, 
And Nebuchadrezzar II laid siege to Jerusalem

Seventy-nine times seventy-nine years ago
Venerable Bishop Ussher might have said it was
Was 228 years before God created the world on October 23, 4004 B.C.
While the Bishop waited, God laid the magic numbers that culminated
In my creation; older than light and darkness, than
Dirt and sea and everything that crawls and flies

I am a prime number, divisible by one and myself
Inheritor of calendars and other useless ways
Of measuring how fine it is to know how long
Are life and love and little things, divisible only by one and myself
Made whole by everything else

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 8, 2010 at 7:48 AM

    Sorry Gamle Ørn, - vi glemte deg på DAGEN. Gratulerer med dagen den 5.! Neste år har du "rundt" år, - blir det stor feiring da?
    Hilsen Rønnaug og Per

    ReplyDelete
  2. Conrad RøyksundDecember 9, 2010 at 11:02 AM

    Kommer jeg til å bli 80, er en stor feiring bare å stå opp, og det er ikke så verst, det!

    ReplyDelete

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