Math is Brewing . . .

For one of my granddaughters who likes poems, I recently purchased If You're Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand:  Poems about School by Kalli Dakos (Aladdin Paperbacks, 1995).  It's hard to find school poems that are non-critical of math -- but this one, at least, has some rhyming fun while cooking it.

Math is Brewing and I'm in Trouble     by Kalli Dakos

       Numbers single,
       Numbers double,
       Math is brewing
       And I'm in trouble,

       If I could mix a magic brew,
       Numbers, I'd take care of you.

First I'd mix in one, two, three,
And one two, three no more would be.

Then I'd take four, five, and six,
And mix until the brew was thick.

I'd stir and add and stir some more --
One hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four,

As thousands and millions boiled and swirled,
I'd think of how I'd saved the world

From brains all stretched and gnarled and fried,
With countless numbers multiplied.

I'd take all the math books in the class,
And throw them in at the very last,

And watch the bubbles swiftly form,
And whirl into an arithmetic storm . . .

I'd see the vapors fade away,
And leave us to a better day.

       Numbers single,
       Numbers double,
       Math is brewing
       And I'm in trouble,

       If I could mix a magic brew,
       Numbers, I'd take care of you.