Arithmetic

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Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your
 head.
Arithmetic tells you how many you lose or win if you know how
 many you had before you lost or won.
Arithmetic is seven eleven all good children go to heaven - or five
 six bundle of sticks.
Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand
 to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.
Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and
 you can look out of the window and see the blue sky - or the
 answer is wrong and you have to start all over and try again
 and see how it comes out this time.
If you take a number and double it and double it again and then
 double it a few more times, the number gets bigger and bigger
 and goes higher and higher and only arithmetic can tell you
 what the number is when you decide to quit doubling.
Arithmetic is where you have to multiply - and you carry the
 multiplication table in your head and hope you won't lose it.
If you have two animal crackers, one good and one bad, and you
 eat one and a striped zebra with streaks all over him eats the
 other, how many animal crackers will you have if somebody
 offers you five six seven and you say No no no and you say
 Nay nay nay and you say Nix nix nix?
If you ask your mother for one fried egg for breakfast and she
 gives you two fried eggs and you eat both of them, who is
 better in arithmetic, you or your mother?

© Carl Sandburg