Arithmetic

Arithmetic

By Carl Sandburg
July 17, 2017

Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your
head.

Arithmetic tells you how many you lose or win if you know how
many you had before you lost or won.

Arithmetic is seven eleven all good children go to heaven or five
six bundle of sticks.

Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand
to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.

Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and
you can look out of the window and see the blue sky or the answer
is wrong and you have to start all over and try again and see how it
comes out this time.

If you take a number and double it and double it again and then
double it a few more times, the number gets bigger and bigger
and goes higher and higher and only arithmetic can tell you what
the number is when you decide to quit doubling.

Arithmetic is where you have to multiply and you carry the
multiplication table in your head and hope you won't lose it.

If you have two animal crackers, one good and one bad, and you
eat one and a striped zebra with streaks all over him eats the other
how many animal crackers will you have if somebody offers you
five, six, seven and you say No, no, no and you say Nay, nay, nay
and you say Nix, nix, nix?

If you ask your mother for one fried egg for breakfast and she gives
you two fried eggs and you eat both of them, who is better in
arithmetic, you or your mother?