COUNTING WITHOUT NUMBERS

a great crowd of hes and shes
slightly more shes than hes
so my tiny daughter tells me

there is apparently more mens
with beards than there is
mens without beards

she's at this stage where
everything has to be
counted...held accountable for itself

her terminology is still
more thans and less thans and
an abstract science

her method is to point and declaim
"There's one....there's another and
another and another and another!"

this annoys the life out of
her mother but
delights me

soon tired of all this
"counting"
she sleeps softly against my shoulder

her breath
tickles
my neck

she my one
and only
a million times over