Binary
by Amit Majmudar
ZERO
Don’t think my zest for warmth
Is an iota more
Or less than yours. My form
Is all one open pore.
ONE
Sure, open, open like
A parachute more hole
Than hold, a ring of silk
Whistling through the cold.
ZERO
This, from the numerical
Icicle? From a gaunt
Old soul who eats alone?
You’d fit inside my paunch.
ONE
Quite the black hole your mouth is,
Hosannahless, agape.
Come close, it’s crush, poof, snuff.
Not even light escapes.
ZERO
You liar. I increase
Whatever number I’m
Beside, except myself.
Even you, first of primes.
ONE
I owe you nothing. More
Than once you’ve shrunk into
A point that shrinks me worse
Than being cut in two.
ZERO
Zero the scale and watch:
I burgeon, I distend,
I spend myself in making
Round hundreds out of tens.
ONE
Oh, don’t inflate your worth,
You flippant, faceless penny.
You can’t give someone more
Till someone gives you any.
ZERO
I’m throat, I’m birth canal,
I’m village well, while you’re
The needle’s little prick,
The sly shiv, the slipped dirk.
ONE
One or None, All or Nothing,
It’s not for us to choose—
Straight line or endless circle,
The ladder or the noose.