Figure
(the name "King Mark IV" was given to a huge electronic calculating machine.)
Our days in hell are numbered, by ourselves,
the worse, the more we chant our tall statistics,
dance through our columned charts, kneel at
blaspheme the god with tabular forms of lust
King Lear could tell us more of reckoning
in pride, in lust, in anguish, than King Mark
the Calculator. "Nothing can come of nothing.
Speak again." Speak with an older voice.
From hell to heaven's a matter beyond measure.
Speak not with figures but with figuration,
transfiguration: sing of the dying god
springing to life with a splash of wine, a crash
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