Trailing Zeroes
Zeroes
once offered my boyhood hands
Their
first holdfast rings to grab,
A
safe conduct into adult society.
Zeroes
in sequence--From a chart of big numbers
In
one of my dad's books I looked up
Each
by name in his biggest dictionary. British
Billions
are the same as American trillions.
A
septillion has 21 zeroes,
A
vigintillion sixty-three.
I
began to collect stamps about then, and in my first
Christmas
gift packet of old foreign stamps
I
found
One
from Germany for 2,000,000 Marks.
Excited
I
showed it to my dad;
He
told me about inflations.
From
the youth book section of the El Cerrito library
I
got everything I could about Germany's Great Inflation.
Wheelbarrows
of money to buy a loaf of bread,
City
folk trading heirloom clocks, and
Gold
and silver rings
To
country farmers for a barrowfull of grain.
My
eye is still out for zeroes.
In
the morning paper not long ago
I
saw something startling pop up
In
the closing precious metal prices of the
Fourth
day of February, 1998.
Silver
had soared to a ten year high
And
was quoted (per ounce precisely to the tenth cent)
At
dollars 7.000, while gold
Sidled
to its own even figure
At
dollars per ounce 300.00--
That's
seven trailing zeroes together
In
the two archetypal metals Sun and Moon,
Their
prices matched since ancient times
At
a ratio of thirteen to one, though in this century of Electrons
Gold
stands much higher.
The
first six of these (three for gold, three for silver)
Are
working zeroes.
Gold
is priced by the dime
So
the seventh is a digit of rest.
That
still leaves odds of one in a million.
By
chance alone that would have happened on only
One
day
Since
the most ancient fraction of that metal,
Remelted
countless times since,
Was
first drawn forth from King Solomon's mines.
And
this the news exactly one day before:
Golden
Renaissance Italy kisses Texas Hunt silver.
Intertwined
-- Italians pray and march to stop
A
Texas execution--the first of a woman since the Civil War.
(The
latter the Texans a while back
Posthumously
pardoned.)
The
Pope's pleas,
And
a million Italians on their knees,
Are
Zeroed out as--yes, that same day--
A
twenty-something USDA choice
Marine
aviator crew thrill-dives
To
near-zero altitude and clips
An
aerial tramway cable
Killing
twenty tourists at an Italian ski resort.
The
three and the seven: Trinity and the sacred week?
But
maybe this golden moonshot is
Nothing
more
Than
a Fortean prank--that same day the airwaves
Spewed
into space
A
seldom heard question: Can one voice
(Afternoon
Oprah's) influence commodity prices?
Seven
round zeroes is quite an answer.
Did
this come of one voice (disembodied)
Tweaking
the floor action just a bit, prodding
Just
the right commodities traders here and there
To
bid on impulse, or to exit the pits to take a leak;
Or
is this event a
Sign,
Woven
into the fabric of reality
By
transhuman multitudes
Acting
in concert to
Orchestrate
a pre-Zero Hour message
Foreordained
since the time of King Solomon himself?
Seven
rings, golden and silver; self-evidently more majestic Than the price of
hamburger.
Come
what may, zeroes still offer me their hands;
This
time a septet to sustain through the worst
My
trust that the Trinity will never amount to nothing.
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