Blanket
Very loyal to individuals, blankets object to being used
as metaphors for vast declarations. Each time a blanket
covers a body, it tries to keep the dusty soul alive
through the night. With what defenses? Stripes, satin
trim, a pattern pricked out in embroidery floss, weft,
warp. While it’s true that occasionally a reprobate in
the ranks rises up and denounces the entire enterprise
of singular devotion, even that blanket can’t claim for
sure truth holds eternal value. As it exposes a body
to dangers seething under the bed by uncovering a
toe or an entire foot, the rogue blanket could feel a
twinge of remorse. Just don’t say anything to it about
all regrets or all terrors, all oceans or all hearts, those
abacuses tallying away in their ichorous accounting
offices, offering false assurances to everybody.
Light
The wild golden giant does his geometry lessons
using windows as tools to create parallelograms, and
a small mutt, who must stay inside a cold apartment
alone every day, sits in a patch of sunlight feeling like a
respected king basking in glory, though he must move
every so often because the giant abandons his premises
over and over as a dutiful show of faith in universal
reality, which the dog wouldn’t choose to believe in
unless he were offered a biscuit.