He will use 28 poles.
First, he will need 4 poles for the corner.
Second, each side is 21 feet. If we divide that into 3 foot sections, there will be 7 sections. It will take 6 poles to divide up the sides into 7 sections.
Therefore, he has 6 poles for each side and 4 corners.
6(4) + 4
24 + 4
28