Why do you need a number?

Why do you need a number to judge me?
Is that all I am?
Classrooms tell us, we are not war prisoners,
but classrooms define us with numbers.
Numbers tell you how much I "know".
Knowledge tells us a person is not one item,
not a statistic.
Then why does one number make you better than me?

I am not my 53 in Chem or 94 in English.
You are not a 2400 on your SAT.
We are more, we are bigger,
but if you need a number so desperately,
I define you as infinity.

Inspiration has no measure,
nor hard work.
Not that fantastic feeling of pleasure that hits you
when you finally understand why
the slope of the curve is the limit of h tends to zero
f of bracket x plus h bracket plus f of x
over h.

I don't slog completing notes on all-nighters,
I don't even study that much.
I understand, I understand more than you think I do.
But if my identification number is less than what someone expects
I'm a failure.

Why do you need a number to see my talents?
Can't you just let me prove them to you?

Why is physics more important than poetry?
Because it has more numbers?
Because it's mechanical, rarely a talent?
Why is there no credit for the Rimbauds, the Ginsbergs,
The ones who challenge the status quo,
The Poes who make dark days darker,
The Shakespearian sonnets of woe?
Why is conformity rewarded,
one zero zero,

... and the freethinkers left hanging?

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness
starving hysterical well-dressed in a school uniform -
miracleworker marksgetters or periodic blunders -
high numbers or insane wonders.