The Invention of Zero

What like was it
xxthis abundant world

where nothing was not —
xxno neat ring

shackling us to absence,
xxno way not

to count or be counted —
xxwhere everything

filled without this
xxempty nest of a number

perched in the mind,
xxeverything swerved

its wide white oblivion ;
xxand could we

given the state of our knowledge
xxlive with the lack of it

unable to quantify
xxcertain populations

in the wild, the exhaustion
xxof our reserves,

the number and intensity
xxof cries in the night?

Recorded by Alex Pryce for PoetCasting.

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