Inanimate Objects

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