Diminishing Dance Floor

As the population
rises, the rise is not a
static charm; rather it is
geometric, and that is reason for alarm.

Progression is the
fancy term, and O how
numbers multiply; it isn’t
simply by the times, it’s exponential--so they fly.

A simple look is two
times four: just multiply
and you get eight; but when
the four is exponent, the difference is very great.

So rather than just two
times four, it would be two
times two, four times; and that,
of course, gives you sixteen-- you see how quickly totals climb.

Let’s now imagine that it’s
five, (a last example that will do);
continuing on like before, the tally now is thirty two.

For most of time the line was
flat--the line of people on the
Earth; for one thing, death was
far less rare, especially in childbirth.

But now with seven
billion here, the math shows
just how quick the rise; and if
humanity two-steps, someday we may abhor the size.

The population
doubles now, much
faster than it did before;
humanity, indeed, may dance,
but on a much more crowded floor.


(Lines: 28)
PAD July 1, 2012