"Because luck is always odd…"

This poem for you all on this day that feels, somehow, both round and prime:

Reasons For Numbers
by Lisel Mueller

1

Because I exist

2

Because there must be a reason
why I should cast a shadow

3

So that good can try to be better
and become best
and beginning grow into middle and end

4

So the round earth can have its corners
and the house will not fall down around me

So the seasons will go on holding hands
and the string quartet play forever

5

For the invention of Milton and Shakespeare
and the older invention
of the wild rose, mother
to the petals
of my hand

6

Because
five
senses
are
not
enough

7

Because luck
is always odd
and the division
of history
into lean and fat
                           years
mysterious

8

To make the spider
possible
and the black ball which tells me
the game is up

but also to let
the noise of the world
make itself heard
as music

9

For the orbit of Jupiter
                        Saturn
                        Venus
                        Mars
                        Mercury
                        Uranus
                        Mickey Mantle
                        Lou Gehrig
                        Babe Ruth

10

Created functionless, for the sheer play
of the mind in its tens of thousands of moves

There is nothing like it in nature

Poetry Friday is being hosted today at Teaching Authors. Go see!