Number Me?
==========

* Daniel S Barron

*   Philosophy of science
*   creative writing
*   theology
*   medical education

> Oh numbers, numbers what do you mean?
> 
> Could it be that I am not as I seem?
> 
> Are my thoughts and hopes as I lay awake
> 
> Something you with symbols can calculate?

> And my mind, the thing I think is pure Me
> 
> Obey equations? You mean it's not free?
> 
> My silent me-ness, my intimate life
> 
> Is no more than a fancy traffic light?

> As enzymes and atoms concatenate
> 
> Or catalyse to keep my steady state
> 
> Are you there, in shadows, calling the shots?
> 
> Directing towards the most probable plots?

> And what of that thing I once called my soul?
> 
> Have mechanisms too this from Me stole?
> 
> Have love and mercy and hope no more worth?
> 
> Am I resigned to emotional dearth?

> If Me results from my neurons and brain
> 
> With no spark, no soul, no God at the reins
> 
> How could I hope for a more perfect dawn?
> 
> For justice? For peace? For life when breath's gone?
> 
> And how will my children know good from bad?
> 
> And where now is my balm of Gilead?

> It's just not fair numbers! Out of the way!
> 
> I like Me; my me-ness is here to stay.

> Keep on your work, but you had best pipe down.
> 
> Count quickly, smartly, but without a sound.
> 
> Yes, some things you'd better work faster at,
> 
> Like treatments for cancer and heart attack.

> Go quantify disease, drugs and what-not;
> 
> But Me and me-ness, would be best forgot.

## Footnotes

*   Competing interests None.

*   Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.