Kafka's Algebra

I imagine Kafka after the night-shift
In the Workers' Accident Insurance Institution
Slouching home through the cobbled streets,
Haunted by numbers.

So it was no surprise one winter’s eve
That I saw a tram full of numbers
Clattering through the slushy streets of Prague
As in a mathematician’s dream.

But they were large as life, soft and snug,
And leaning like cushioned drunks
As the tram took a corner before I had time
To put two and two together.