In Revelations the angel commands John the Divine Rise and measure! And thus begins
a prophecy a litany of calculations 40 and 2 months 2 witnesses 200 and 3-score days
2 olive trees 2 candlesticks in a singe of data John like a physicist scavenges for God 3.5 days,
4 and 20 elders, 12 stars, for the prophets to measure is to signify and separate “Rise and measure
the temple of God” they told him “but do not measure the court outside” something or some-1
is always left out 7 heads, 10 horns, 7 crowns accounting is frequently an exercise of power
(we ticker we financial officer) as in the story of the Samurai who falsely accuses his servant
Okiku of stealing 1 of his 10 delft plates his words spreadsheet she inventories 1 2 3 must be
4 5 6 mistaken 7 8 9 counts again her master will spare her if she fucks him an equation
she refuses he throws her down a well a well is a chamber of calculations an ear
a labyrinth of bone a darkness so seldom our habitat whence Okiku endlessly counts 1 2
my genre is cross-cultural 3 4 epic ticker 5 6 and genres fall 7 8 from office buildings 9
Okiku screams like mid-level managers in the 1930s equations spool through us pool storm
drains confirm the season in Revelations the angel never specifies standard or index or weather
a portfolio of catastrophe spirals round in times of stress as before a fall or angel or robbery
we see in hyper-reality innumerable pixels (my god my 401K my billfold) at gunpoint
in the backseat of my airport taxi my epic is national precarity the poet said his mind burned
with numbers—arithmomania—John’s angel commanded Measure! gunman barked Give me
your wallet or I’ll fucking kill you! to submit to another’s accounting is to surrender is to actuary
in a taxi where I hand over my money (so financial adviser so market crashed) not counting
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