I really like the number 23. I think it started a few years ago when I was looking at my planner and realized that over the course of a year several important things had happened on the 23rd day of the month. So I found myself starting to get excited about the 23rd day of the month. (Yes, I know, possibly superstitious or nerdy? Ha ha. Probably.) But then I realized that I like the number 23. Last fall I felt such love about the numeral that I wrote a poem about it. (Ode to twenty-three? Don’t mock…I can feel you mocking.) Anyway, today seems like a good day to post this weird obsession because I just made a list of 23 things about me and also because it is the twenty-third birthday of one of my dear friends.
So here I give you evidence of my weird obsession, ode to 23.
I used to prefer even numbers
Two’s and four’s and divisible eights
But somehow odds have found their way
Deeper into my heart these days.
And even greater still I find
The numerals most appealing in mind
Say no to the symmetrical division way
But in uniquely clustered groups they stay.
Two, three, five, seventeen and seven—
I find these numbers close to haven
And in particular twenty-three
I think it near perfection to me.