DUNBAR’S NUMBER BY KEITH PARSONS

34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 74

There is a number

deep within your brain

a ratio to show how many people

you can know and still know

who you are and who they are

a cognitive social limit;

for chimpanzees it is sixty

for howler monkeys

seven is it.

But we, biggest-headed beasts

break this boundary

raising teeming megalopoli

millions…