Well, in the first place, Kathryn, I have recently decided (after some
equivocal remarks in earlier writings) that I am utterly opposed to
so-called “free verse.” (“‘Free verse’? You may as well call sleeping in a
ditch ‘free architecture’.”—G.K. Chesterton.) But to the matter in hand.
“September 11th cubed” could be interpreted in several ways. As “September
September September 11th 11th 11th,” for instance. “911″ cubed is
756,058,031. “91101″ cubed is 756,082,928,903,301. If “cubed and squared”
are to be understood as successive operations, then we are raising to the
sixth power, so the results would then be 571,623,746,239,596,961 and
571,661,395,378,994,114,706,608,696,601, respectively. A
scientifically-minded person would of course prefer to work from the Julian
date, in which
the event “9/11″ happened at around 2,452,163.88, which, if you raise it to
the sixth power, gives
217,418,725,854,466,990,276,235,742,262,044,129,399.204957917184. Then
again… Kathryn? Hello? Kathryn?