Inanimate Objects
Inanimate objects are not words
That roll smoothly from your tongue into speech
But are coins that roll under a table
To a spot tantalizingly out of reach
I curse them for upholding Newton’s laws
Making me an active external force
That disrupts the objects’ two normal states
Knocking into tables, glasses, and plates
Like a slapstick version of Groundhog Day
The same clumsiness comes daily my way
Bruises, burns, cuts, and clothing stains attest
To the breakfast battle and getting dressed
Was I born so: is this nurture’s lesson
On skills involved in a blunder session?
Cleverer than an artist’s* installation
Better than a magician’s sleight of hand
Keys change pockets without indication
While spectacles form groups and then disband
Remarkable chains of cause and effect
That render probability a joke
Are there for all to count the cost
Of a Chaplinesque slip on a bar of soap
If only Newton had another law:
All you need would be in the same drawer
*Tinguely