Birth and Death of Math

Say your parents and grandparents
Happened to have died, having lived

All their lives, reasonably long
Lives, with ten fingers and ten toes.

Say you know some folks who started
Out with a deficit, maybe

Seven fingers, or just two toes,
Or who had a full contingent

To begin with, but lost a few,
Or most, of those. In their coffins,

Do your grandparents clench their fists?
Urned or scattered, do your parents

Wriggle their toes? Probably not,
But who really knows? There’s much more

To dying than losing digits,
Much more to life than having them.

But having pronounced that like it’s
Some sort of wisdom, ask yourself,

Would you not rather, if you can,
Keep the digits you have on hand?