Learning Maths as a Fruit Thief

My uncle taught first grade mathematics

In a day school

So my arithmetic lessons began early

With the counting of fruits

Stolen from his orchard

In company of other starved kids

And cane clutching scarecrows

Posing as instructors

Perhaps it also started with stones

And the calculation of circumferences

Near territories of partying fruit bats

Moving in circles

Those kids moved to greater things-

One invented an adding machine

My uncle moved on too,

Counting death’s teeth daily

In a mausoleum with towering trees

And a scary statue

One of the kids designed

To scare off fruit thieves