Once upon a time, I read that the perfect age for writing quality poetry is twenty-three. Apparently most of T.S. Elliot’s stuff came out then, the rest having to do with prose. I realized January 19ththat I will turn twenty-four in three months, and since I started writing some poems before it’s too late: forty-six poems at twenty-three. I’ll post each Friday until the last week of March, then I’ll post one a day until my birthday on April 30th. Here’s number 6:

More people need jewish friends.
The kind that know “4” means
“Everything under heaven, above Hades”
(Or Gehenna as the case may be)

That “1” means
“unity, singleness, the peaceful resolute whole”
That “2” means
“division, contrast, discord”
“3” gets at community

That “7” shows wholeness

“6” well, see “6” is a hard one,
“6” is a beast

“6”
as in less than seven
as in less than peace
less than whole
less than complete unity that makes up the perfection of 7 shades of 1
less than the sevenfold spirit of God

To say 666 lessens peace thrice.
It’s not a number.
It’s a piece of advice.