Omnibus Omega

Omnibus Omega

Kelp favors the figure eight
as it undulates on a beach,
caressed by countless wave.

Oxygen, as a chemical element
has the atomic number of 8.

8 Flora is bright in the desert sky,
a main asteroid belt
known to some astronomers
and hermits.

I dreamed of two great serpents
mating, as each swallowed the
tail of the other, creating a
writhing lustful 8 in the dust.

8 stands alone, first and last,
alpha and omega, a firm
fibonacci number, strutting
its octagonal pyramidal torso.

The Super Chief had 8 locomotives,
8 cabooses, and no box cars,
streaking the rails in total
darkness near Red Mountain, CA.

Even in the steaming midst of my
marinara pasta, number 8 squirms
to the surface to greet my fork
like hundreds of rutting worms.

Man had 8 chakras--count them;
7 in the physical body, well known
and color coded, but the eighth,
the soul, the star chakra
is located merely 10 cm. above
the crown, the prince of portals.

Dali painted an hourglass
80 stories high, filled with
the ashes of our war dead,
but like the ash from fire
mountains--death ash of
such bulk, girth, and volume,
congeals, scabs over, healing
the vertex, and even in
his nightmares, time stopped,
and the great hourglass burst apart
like a rotten melon, and the pent-up
screams of the dead released
brought blood to his ears
as he awoke.

It is written that Plato remained
with Socrates 8 years.
There are 8 degrees of Buddhist monks.
Vishnu has 8 arms.
There are 8 gods of the Vedas.
Buddha’s ashes were separated into 8 parts.
The Zen way to nirvana is made up of 8 parts.
The Greeks dedicated the number 8
to Dyonisios, who was born during
the eighth month.

Something even Frank Frazetta
never painted, or knew, was
that the great gray Sheipner horse
of Odin had 8 legs.

8 represents the planet earth,
not the surface, but rather
the volume, for 8
is the first cubic number.

8 is the Pythagarean symbol
of love and friendship,
and it called
the Great Tetrachtys.

To the Japanese 8 means the multiplicity.
In China 8 represents
the totality of the universe.

8 has always been the Cosmic Christ,
the number of the perfection,
of the infinity. The symbol of infinity
is 8 laid down.

Glenn Buttkus September 2010

Posted as #124 over in Magpie Tales 32