This is the greatest number of them all
Disguised as a mere point marking a graph
But underneath, a diabolic laugh,
An infinite abyss in which to fall
Of nothingness.  No Thing can more appall
Than nothing--no, no rope, no rod, no staff
Can save us from what can't be done by half--
Where nothing is, there's no-one we can call.

But if there's anything, then there is hope,
For take the smallest thing, divide by zero,
And zoom! springs up infinity, the hero
That even with blank nothingness can cope
   For multiply infinity by nought
   And the vast finite universe is wrought.
 
 

Before the universes were begun
Beyond the furthest flights of mind and thought
In the great unimaginable, there was nought
Or was there, inconceivably, a One?
But back to earth--when all is said and done
How could arithmetic, or more, be taught
Except by one and one and one--so ought
Not one to be of all our thoughts the sun?

And here is mystery too--that I am many
Yet in all my multitudinous parts
Like a great reel of patterned rope that darts
From birth to death.  Yet neither I nor any
  One can conceive what power, or what Divinity
  Can make a One, out of a near-infinity.
 
 

Cleave the whole universe and make it Two
But careful!  it can cleave at any place
And two is all we need, for sex, class, race
Talk, sneers, fights, love, to cherish or to rue.
With two, teachers can teach and lawyers sue.
Two can communicate from face to face,
Walk arm in arm, or part, or else embrace.
There seems no limit on what two can do!

Two can create new life, two can destroy.
A duel can turn two into one, or nought.
Two minus one is one, when prey is caught.
But one plus one makes three, when ones employ
   Ones one, and all alone, for ever more so
   But split it into two, and off we go!
 
 

Two's company, and three, of course a crowd.
Two can do much, but three can do much more.
Two love or fight--a third can keep the score.
Three make different pairs, if that's allowed.
The odd one out may--or may not--be cowed,
But without three, where is the playwright's lore,
Who would we hiss, and who would we adore?
How could I know the sun, but for the cloud?

And then, of course, there is the trinity
Far beyond dialectics--First, potential,
That must be realized in an essential
Script or score.  That to be heard must be
   Played--with high spirit, if not always hold
   All in one patter, yet Three, not one solely.
 
 

Four winds, four seasons, phases of the moon,
Four legs to every table, every chair.
How solid it can seem to be foursquare!
And Four/Four common time makes a good tune.
Two shoot it out on Main Street at high noon
But to these scrappers add another pair
And we have tennis, where all's square and fair
And we have made a sportsman from a goon.

But careful now!  Earth, Air,  Water and Fire
Were not enough.  A fifth evangelist,
Found in a cave, might well improve the list.
The four grim horsemen bring disaster dire,
  And when the sharp command goes out "form fours,"
  Flee to the woods--it may be time for wars!