Zero

a word that rhymes with hero
ends like a surprise
or an echo

oh

do the zeros in a millionaire’s bank balance echo?

a black hole in the cosmos
a cipher
holder of nothing

nought     nil     zilch     empty

does it ever hunger for quantity?

Kim M. Russell, 1st December 2025

Image by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash

It’s Quadrille Monday and, at the dVerse Poets Pub, Melissa is our host, and we are writing neat little poems of exactly 44 words, this time including the word ‘zero’.

Melissa has given us a history of zero, which she says is both a number that denotes the absence of quantity and a concept which developed in India. She also writes about zero in pop culture.

Melissa has shared poems about zero by Dorothea Tanning, Amy Uyematsu and Jane Hirshfield.

41 thoughts on “Zero”

  2. I like the echoes in your quadrille, Kim. I’ve not spent a lot of time considering what the zeros in bank accounts might have to say. Imagining them hungering for quantity, seems like a paradox! Food for thought, for sure.

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  7. ha – interesting does it ever hunger for quantity…the universe is vast and filled with voids of nothingness…or is there somethingness out there….

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