Sheep Groups of Nine

The race spat sheep in calm nines — nine and nine when soft eye worked.

Groups of nine, said Spike. Count the groups, then multiply with looking.

Suzy clapped: nine, eighteen, twenty-seven. Three groups. Twenty-seven sheep.

Not twenty-eight because one ewe looked special. Special still counts as one.

A goat tried to join a sheep nine. Different species. Different queue.

Soft eye kept the groups true. Numbers without soft eye become shove maths.

Thinking Cap habit: group, then count groups. Cap does not invent sheep.

Little Thunder stood clear of the race like a sensible mahogany fence post.

Kids: twenty-seven toys in three piles of nine. Skip-count by nines.

Muster maths can be a rhythm — then a latch.

Lead keeps the count and the kindness together.

Three groups of nine = twenty-seven.

Three groups of nine = twenty-seven.