Mechanism

These days—the long similarities
Of their joys, their aches, and their problems—
Will have to give way to something new

You won’t notice until it’s happened.
Get back in the car. Turn the heat on.
Your unsustainable foolishness

Goes for another meaningless drive
To which you inevitably bring
More of your freshly half-baked meanings.

Think how recent and mechanical
The original analogies
Some of the senses some of your words

Carry—cliche, say, stereotype.
Plates for printing off copies, that’s all.
How did you ever live without them

Carrying senses they carry now?
This means, you think, significance and
Sense race ahead of the words, all words,

And then someone burns through those slow words
To find a better analogy,
Which analogy becomes the sense

Burning analogies before it.
Think of the analogies burning,
Their terms driven, like ashen creatures,

Singed fur and glowing eyes, escaping
Or trying to escape, the wildfires
Leaping lightly along behind them.

Where were we? Oh yes, you were driving,
Mind inside your head like a grizzly
Pawing half-rotten logs for protein,

While the body ached as yesterday
It ached, and your joy in musings stayed
Pretty much put, right where joy began.