only the numbers ever change

the factor that's not included in the account
is a small number but means quite a lot
is life and hope and pain and all forgot
and larger than the principal is its amount
we could in justice simply do a count
and see fall into place each single dot
the pattern clean not even the least blot
while second by second the digits mount
almost to the stars or so the numbers seem
that are observed by all the grey-faced men
whose job it is to see all figures match
even in their plain eyes there is a gleam
at seeing how the values combine again
into a hook that will the punter catch