Abacus

A board. A slab. A draught. A frame strewn with sand for the delineation of figures.
A sandbox. And. Geometrical diagrams. Or. A frame divided in two sections and
in which round wooden plums slide upon parallel rods. For performing the
functions of arithmetic. Finding mechanical solutions to mathematical problems. Addition and subtraction. Multiplication and division. Both square and cube root operations. On numbers. As. A set of positive integers unique in meaning and fixed
in order. But. If the value of the plum changes according to its position on the rod,
you find that I am divisible. Can be rendered invisible. That I can be reduced, diminished, and deducted from the larger quantities. I am trying to discover the
value of me. But. I am dumb to the wonders of your great numbers.

A child puts a penny in a penny loafer. A woman with two broken fingers carries
three bags up four stairs. Five or six men stamp their feet in the snow. And. In the middle of a rectangular room, halfway across the world, seven empty chairs form
a circle. For. A nine inch statue portrays a man on the back of an ox. And. I am
trying to accrue. I am trying to accumulate. But. You have given me the gift of two glass eyes. Or. You've added eight and subtracted ten.

The word is derived from a Semitic word ibeq. To wipe the dust. And. In
architecture, a slab on the top of the capital of a column. In the Ionic orders, a
square flat plate. In the Corinthian and Composite, variously cut and ornamented.
See. You are bedazzled. You stand at the edge of a hundred horizons wearing a thousand crowns. While I, in this world, am slowly disappearing. As is this image
of you. For. Any number times zero. Always equals zero.