destroying a thousand year of mathematical genius

I'm not sure I believe in negative numbers.
If zero is really zero,
that is, nothing,
then how can something be less than nothing?
"Nothing" is the absence of thingness.
How can one be more absent a thing than another?
"We are both nothing, but I am more nothing than you."
To be more nothing…does that not
make "nothing"
a thing?

Thingness defies zero.
Either you are zero—and absolutely nothing
or very secretly
you are something.