home Poem List next poem Natural Numbers Balance Consider short rods, guess mark their midpoints Pound spoon shapes at each rod's opposite ends Pair the spoons off to as follows make joints One fulcrum - balance pair made with two bends At one midmark bend an acute angle Hammer flat its spoon ends to make flat feet Suspended symmetric fulcrums dangle And fulcrums look symmetric when placed neat Second midpoint arched with spoons facing skies Place ideal on corresponding fulcrum Beads are equal to equal seeing eyes When reference bead be chosen from some With one reference balance selected Place the reference bead fixed in one spoon Taken singly others are inspected Placing each in turn in the second swoon Those that then balance the reference bead Shall be placed in a set uniquely marked Equal to one reference unit mead Used as gravity's bead trade value harked Were the beads say made of very pure gold Trusted by those who transfer each product THE reference as the meter of old Could number any state's counting conduct (c)ERA 08:01 AM 2/21/03