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The Sum Total
- University of Arkansas Press
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G A RY F I N C K E The Sum Total “Beware the sum total, a thing that bites,” Miss Hartung said, sounding like a pastor. “We all are numbers,” she said, “just listen,” Reading us Bible words, speaking for God. The sum total had perfect attendance; It growled and bared its teeth when thick columns Of figures covered the dusted blackboard, And Miss Hartung called us up and offered Thirty seconds to work out an answer Like one thousand, two hundred eighty-four, The sum total of eight numbers, then nine, Then ten, carrying 1s and 2s and 3s While everybody waited for his turn, From Ronald Ambrose to Anthony Zeck, Who would clutch the chalk and stare, scribbling A guess so awful Miss Hartung would press A finger to her lips to warn us mute. By April, there were negative numbers In Miss Hartung’s tests. “Look,” she repeated, “These columns are like your lives, all of you, Don’t kid yourselves, because the sum total Can be zero, or worse, somewhere below.” Now, the ordinary could be counted. We said minus five for burping, minus Fifty for throwing rocks through the windows Of a house left behind, unsold, by death, 286 ❚ The 2000s Behavior’s daily total serious With fractions and integers to the right Of the decimal point, not including The negatives I said nothing about, The private additions for lust and lies, Jealousy, laziness, and lack of faith. So far below zero, so self-absorbed, I thought my secrecy was singular, Saying my sums without moving my lips Like Frank Wertz, who whispered the numbers one Through six before he opened his lunch box Or workbook, the sum total twenty-one As if that sequence finished the small hex On the routine, unlocking the next thing While I imagined speaking those digits Past possibility’s enormous page To the sum total of eternity That lies at the sudden end of numbers. The 2000s ❚ 287 ...