October 26, 2021

There is no number

For the times I have stood by you,

And the outstanding things you do:

Pop over for pop up events,

Don wig, lame Canadian accent,

Pay for the toaster and award,

Pose questions for posters awkward,

Raise racquets, relive punk poseur,

As ever willing guest lecturer,

Fund competition and conference,

Promote your program prominence,

Attend student ceremony,

Inductions, cook-offs, poetry, 

Fuel pilots, steward resources,

Approve under-enrolled courses.

There is no number

To fathom the bottomless depths

To conspiracies some suspect.

"He's checked out" goes the rumor shrill

But don't worry about my till,

Load up your cart of grievances,

"Need a price check on achievements."

Is it 'cause I now delegate,

But is seen that I abdicate,

That I want to hand over reins,

Ensure outcomes you must maintain?

(If someone gave me a number,

I'd hoped it's one 10/10,

A small remembrance

Of what I have meant to them.)

If there is no number

Found in my recent Rolodex,

Social distancing has effects

That make the effort more and more

Difficult for the open door.

Hope the reason isn't your fret

For numbers at decimal's left

That obliterate the figures

Here to beget something bigger.

But, no, there is no number

For what I rent inside your head.

If you think recent lines were said

About you, note that the gunfire

Was aimed at someone much higher,

Or, God forbid, someone lower.

Of lines possibly litigious

There is little significance

To hypothesize without facts

That I no longer have your back.

Besides there's also no number

Of you who stood up by my side

At the time I openly applied

To better our shared future:

Just calls for an unknown suitor.

There is no number,

Now plenty of numbness.

There is no number

And now there are no words.

There is no number:

Wiped clean from the board.