If I had a million lives to live . . .

     This posting features Carl Sandburg's "Humdrum," a poem that reflects on "million."  (This poem and others by Sandburg may be found online at poets.org -- at this vast resource-site also is a collection of poems with math-themes.)  For me, Sandburg was the poet who introduced the idea that lines can be poetic without having rhyme.  (This link leads to several of my previous Sandburg-postings.)

       Humdrum     by  Carl Sandburg  (1878-1967)

       If I had a million lives to live
          and a million deaths to die
          in a million humdrum worlds,

       I’d like to change my name
          and have a new house number to go by   
          each and every time I died
          and started life all over again.

       I wouldn’t want the same name every time
          and the same old house number always,
          dying a million deaths,
          dying one by one a million times:
          —would you?
                               or you?
                                       or you?

Sandburg's "Humdrum" is in the public domain; I found it here.