The Count

when I was very young
I was very sickly
I remember lying in bed looking
through the mosquito net
amusing myself with the
shifting patterns as my vision faded
funnily enough
I saw a lot of faces of
men wearing turbans, like
the Sikh Gurus
I also loved to count and maybe
counting helped me feel better
whenever I was sick
I didn’t count to great big numbers
but just a few, like one to five
so maybe it wasn’t the numbers
that entertained me but rather
the patterns that counting made
because I wasn’t really counting anything
and I counted only in my head
1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 4-3-2-1, 4-3-2-1
1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3
3-2-1, 3-2-1,
2-1, 2-1
lately I like to play the bongos and
I still like counting but
I couldn’t count with numbers
I count with words
and I could’t count in my head
I have to count aloud
bap-bap-bap-bap-ba rap-bap-bap-bap-ba rap-ba-rap-ba-rap
that’s the habanera, I
learned that on Youtube
but it’s more fun to count crazy
tah-ba-pap pa-ra-pap tap ‘ ba-rap-pap
tah-ba-pap pa-ra-pap tap ‘ ba-rap-pap
tap ba-rap tap ‘ ba-rap ‘ pa-tup-tup!
tap-ba-rup-pap ‘ tap-barubarap-pap
tabubaraptarapbap!
if I could count it aloud, then
I could remember it
I could play it
it’s nice to count without really
counting anything