Elizabeth Davis

27 

By Elizabeth Davis 

27 is the muse that whispers in literary ears 

From the shelves of every library 

Inspiring Steinbeck’s 27 books 

Breathing life into Stephen King’s It who returns every 27 years It smiles amongst the plentitude of characters on Marvel’s Deadpool #27 cover A number earning the comic the Guinness World Record 

27 is a melody 

Setting a needle down on vinyl, releasing 

Mozart’s 27 piano concertos that dance and spiral 

In the air, like dust motes 

Mozart’s 27 arias pirouette with 

Fall Out Boy’s “27,” Passenger’s “27,” and Ciro Y los Persas’ “27” A melody that screeched to a halt when 

Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix deaths’ 

Inducted them into the 27 Club 

27 is competition 

Where “game, set, match” are 

Battled out on the 27-foot-wide court, 

Or cradled in a stadium where the Yankees have won 27 World Series It bursts out onto open routes where 

Eddie Izzard ran 27 marathons in 27 days as 

Ayrton Senna raced down roads and around corners in car 27 

27 is wonder 

Gazing at the sky through a telescope 

Looking for the 27 moons of Uranus or 

NGC 27, a spine galaxy in the constellation of Andromeda 

Or wondering whether that dark between the stars 

Is the dark matter which makes up 27% of the universe 

27 is the structure of life 

It’s the 27% of Earth that’s terra firma 

Where the 27 bones in our hands are used to mine 

Cobalt, atomic number 27, used in lithium batteries 

Which powers our cameras to capture images 

Of elephants created with 27 pairs of chromosomes 

27 is spirituality 

Strung together in the 27 beads of the Buddhist rosary 

The genesis of humans in verse 27 

It’s the guidance found in the 27 mansions in Hindu astrology And the commandment of Allah to pray on the 27th night 

Its purity is found in the Hebrew 27 

27 weaves us all together