Billions and Billions
McDonald's once counted burgers sold,
proudly posting the number on a big sign
outside of each of their restaurants.
It stopped when the number got too big.
(Would people not believe that
one-hundred and forty-seven billion,
nine-hundred and twenty-three million,
seven-hundred and fifty-six thousand,
three-hundred and eighty-nine
Big Macs, Quarter-pounders and
delicious double-cheeseburgers
had not been consumed, quelling
the hunger of the masses?)
Now the signs read simply,
"Billions and billions sold"--how prosaic!
So how may we count--
and post the number of souls in the world?
Looking at it in cosmic time,
souls are like fireflies,
flicking their luminescence,
on and off, on and off,
a moment of brightness is a lifetime:
a wondrous light show
in that black and fecund
sweet summertime evening
we call eternity....
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