Let’s Hear it for the Minus

Negative numbers deserve respect such as they rarely ever get.

In Math they have been dubbed absurd, an adjective that really hurt

When the nasty appellation saw its earliest application

In quite ancient, hoary times. Too long have nasty crimes

Like that stained Abstraction. Our times now call for action!

Let us rise now and defend numbers we can’t apprehend

Wearing those humbling minus signs they’re forced to show in lines

Doing subtraction which adds or division which just pads

Positive numbers’ sums. Let’s join and clear those slums

Below the Zero’s sway. Arise from Berkley to Bombay.

Negatives have a true domain in which they ought to reign

Supreme rather than merely be used when needed—cavalierly.