All This Talk of Numbers

All this talk of numbers:
   balanced budgets,
   programs, salaries, percentages
fill my head
Polynomials in standard form
   swell blood vessels
   raising blood pressure
   taking away any humanity
The hungry man walks
One, two, three steps
   to nowhere
   with no one
The child struck
   one, two, three hundred times
   for no reason
   for no cause
The man working for numbers
   in a check book, electronic billing,
   and credit reports 
The woman walking for numbers,
   pedometer of her children’s
   standardized test scores
   for comparison for better schools
for more
Numbers that time our day
                   that measure our distances
                   that sit still
                   or rush by
endless and unfathomable 
numbers
Zeno's paradoxes