(or, Vincent Wallace
Jones – born in the year the “T”
was removed from STARS)
I. Counting Song
One plus one plus one is three.
The waves are rolling in the sea.
Two plus two (or twice two) – four.
A dog is barking at my door.
Minus one from six is five.
The bees are buzzing in the hive.
On its head, a nine is six –
a drummer rolling for his sticks.
A one, a two, a three, a four,
a dog, the sea, a hive, my door.
More than this you’ll never know,
so leave the flowers where they grow.
Seven – three times two plus one.
It’s time to get the washing done.
Zero on a zero – eight.
A cat’s meowing at my gate.
Upside down, a six is nine –
around it curls, a curling line.
Zero next to one is ten,
and then we row them up again.
A five, a six, an eight, a nine,
a cat, my door, the sea, a line.
More to this you’ll ever add,
so clasp a world in numbers clad.
la LA la LA la A-b-C
la LA la LA la 1-2-3
II. Vinnie’s Song
Shake the mountains to their toes
and wrap the rivers up in bows,
pull the dragon by its tail
and roll it up inside a snail,
hang that giant from a hook
and rip the story from its book,
toss the globe into a flask
and answer questions never asked
and pull and roll and shake and wrap
and enter there through being’s flap.
Don’t forget that what you say
brings day to night and night to day.
Pin the atoms through your ears
and interchange the hemispheres,
make the comet whirl and fly
and spin the solar system dry,
gather blue from fishy brine
and change the fishes into wine,
place that camel through the eye
and have the sages wonder why
and wrap and roll and pull and shake
and make a boast of God’s mistake.
Words will turn your errors right
and muster day from darkest night.
la LA la LA la PULL and SHAKE
la LA la LA la HAVE and MAKE
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