Salvo

Sixty-two, forty-one gun salutes

Are the king’s birthday salvo, which toots,

Loud and long, years progressed—

Viz., two sevens abreast …

One is puzzled by how that computes!

 

Mike Mesterton-Gibbons is a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Florida State University who has returned to live in his native England. His poems have appeared in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, the Creativity Webzine, Current Conservation, the Ekphrastic Review, Grand Little Things, Light, Lighten Up Online, the New Verse News, Oddball Magazine, Rat’s Ass Review, WestWard Quarterly and other journals. The poem was prompted by the Daily Mail YouTube video, “Gun salutes mark King Charles’ 77th birthday.”