40/30

He blurts it out
or whispers it to himself:
“40/30,” and is secretly pleased.

What could that mean?
Forty over thirty reduces to
four over three,

which could be
an obvious statement
about what works

in a street brawl:
four thugs beat three thugs,
maybe not every time

but it’s the safe way to bet.
Maybe four over three
is the odds of something happening

that’s likely but not certain.
Could be a brag:  “I over-achieved.”
Could be a formula, or a key to a code.

It might, of course, mean nothing at all
to anyone except the one for whom
it means a lot, or everything.  Maybe

we are not meant to know
what led him to speaking of that fraction,
that motto, that driver of action: 40/30,

scribbled on a last page
of a manuscript, on a concrete
or social media wall.  Numbers

can obscure as surely as they
clarify.  Maybe it means nothing at all,
even to him;

when you get down to it,
in fact, I’m sure
it means nothing at all.