We have a math metaphor deep in mind.

My shoulders are feeling hunched,

Like a number, I’ve been crunched.

This is greater than a one

Of my problems I’d begun.

I have fear of metaphor.

I confuse what numbers are.

My fear’s greater than it ought.

It’s not less than something naught.

I am thinking some are big,

Others mid, some galactic.

I think numbers can be fine.

Some are small, as a half-pint.

What I’m really scared about

Is a big, disturbing lout,

Seven must be large! It’s said

Seven, eight, nine, I have dread.

Then I heard a teacher say

Numbers don’t have size, “What? Hey!”

Yet infinities can be

Large or small infinity.

Numbers can’t live without us.

They’re there in our unconscious.