By the Numbers. James Richardson

      

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       This e-book edition was created through a special grant provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Copper Canyon Press would like to thank Constellation Digital Services for their partnership in making this e-book possible.

      BBR 1923–2008

      JER 1923–2008

      Contents

        Title Page

        Note to Reader

        Dedication

       I. Bit Parts

      1  Northwest Passage

      2  In Shakespeare

      3  Special Victims Unit

      4  Subject, Verb, Object

      5  Emergency Measures

      6  Metallurgy for Dummies

      7  Head-On

      8  Iron Age

      9  Classic Bar Scenes I. Apollo at Happy Hour II. Ovidian Deposition III. Pygmalion among the Young IV. Twilight of a God V. Orpheus at Last Call VI. Apollo in Age

      10  Zeus: A Press Conference

      11  State-Sponsored

      12  Echo

      13  Bit Parts

      14  The God Who

       II. Vectors 3.0: Even More Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays

       III. By the Numbers

      1  By the Numbers

      2  Birds in Rain

      3  Are We Alone? or Physics You Can Do at Home

      4  Prokaryotes

      5  The Stars in Order Of

      6  Origin of Language

      7  Songs for Senility

      8  Room Temperature

       IV. Small Hours

      1  Shore Town, Winter

      2  Tableau

      3  Postmortem Georgic

      4  Night Lights (1977– ) Blackout The Rich Man Sotto Voce To a Tea Slice of Life Who Has Seen the Wind Red, Green, Blue Star Reading Light

      5  Roads Not Taken

      6  Roads Taken

      7  End of Summer

        Notes

        About the Author

        Acknowledgments

        Copyright

        Special Thanks

I. Bit Parts

Northwest Passage

      That faint line in the dark

      might be the shore

      of some heretofore unknown

      small hour.

      This fir-scent on the wind

      must be the forests

      of the unheardof month

      between July and August.

In Shakespeare

      In Shakespeare a lover turns into an ass

      as you would expect. Others confuse

      their consciences with ghosts and witches.

      Old men throw everything away

      when they panic and can’t feel their lives.

      They pinch themselves, pierce themselves with twigs,

      cliffs, lightning, to die—yes, finally—in glad pain.

      You marry a woman you’ve never talked to,

      a woman you thought was a boy.

      Sixteen years go by as a curtain billows

      once, twice. Your children are lost,

      they come back, you don’t remember how.

      A