If I put you before me
Would we both actually
Obtain a benefit
Or would all of it
Be merely illusory?

If I take more than you
Do you have nil and I have two
As if the accounting
Amounted to something
Less than a point of view?

Numbers make the world concrete
The truth hides in poetry
We can’t find a new conceit
That will feed the hungry and save the rhino
While bolstering my ego

(2018)