<html><head><meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark"></head><body><pre style="word-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">% poetry, music and typesetting
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% https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB8_2Yuj8Og
%
% Published on Nov 1, 2016
% Taken from 'Poetry versus Orchestra'. Album by Hollie McNish and Metropole Orkest, conducted by Jules Buckley.
% Released on MO Black, fall 2016.
% www.mo.nl/poetry â€¢ www.holliepoetry.com
%
% Poem written by Hollie McNish, music by Jules Buckley
% Artwork by me studio, Martin Pyper
%
MATHEMATICS

he said
â€œthose goddamn pakistanis and their goddamn corner shops
built a shop on every corner, took our british workers jobsâ€
he said
â€œthose goddamn chinese and their goddamn china shopsâ€
i told him theyâ€™re from vietnam, but he didnâ€™t give a toss
i ask him what was there before that â€œdamn japan manâ€™s shop?â€
he looks at me and dreams a scene of british workersâ€™ jobs
of full-time, full-employment before the â€œgoddamn boats all cameâ€
where everybody went to work for full-time full-hours every day
â€œa british business stood their firstâ€
he claims
â€œbefore the irish came
now british people lost their jobs and bloody turkish they're to blameâ€
i ask him how he knows that fact, he says, â€œbecause itâ€™s trueâ€
i ask him how he knows itâ€™s fact, he says, he read it in the news,
â€œevery time a somali comes here they take a job from us
the mathematics one for one, from us to them, it just adds up.â€
he bites his cake, he sips his brew, he says again he knows the plot
â€œthe goddamn caribbeanâ€™s came and now good folk here donâ€™t have jobsâ€
i ask him what was there before the â€œgoddamn persian curtain shopâ€
i show him architecturesâ€™ plans
of empty goddamn plots of land
I show him the historic maps
a bit of sand
a barren land
there was no goddamn shop before that pakistani came and planned
man - i am sick of crappy mathematics
cos i love a bit of sums
i spent years into economics
and i geek out over calculus
and when i meet these paper claims
that one of every new that came
takes away â€˜ourâ€™ daily wage
i desperately want to scream
â€œyour math is stuck-in primaryâ€
cos some who come here also spend
and some who come here also lend
and some who come here also tend
to set up work which employs them
and all thosebalance sheets and trends
they work with numbers, not with men
and all this goddamn heated talk
ignores the trade the polish brought
ignores the men they give work to
not plumbing jobs but further too
ignores the guys they buy stock from
accountants, builders, on and on
and i know itâ€™s nice to have someone
to blame our lack of jobs upon
but immigrationâ€™s not that plain
despite the sums inside our brains
as one for one
as him for you
as if he goes â€˜homeâ€™, theyâ€™d employ you
cos sometimes one that comes makes two
and sometimes one can add three more
and sometimes two times two is much, much more than four
and most times immigrants bring more than minuses.
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