Things
Things
by L. Mueller
What happened is, we grew lonely
living among the things,
so we gave the clock a face,
the chair a back,
the table four stout legs
which will never suffer fatigue.
We fitted our shoes with tongues
as smooth as our own
and hung tongues inside bells
so we could listen
to their emotional language,
and because we loved graceful profiles
the pitcher received a lip,
the bottle a long, slender neck.
Even what was beyond us
was recast in our image;
we gave the country a heart,
the storm an eye,
the cave a mouth
so we could pass into safety.
Intriguing, imaginative idea. We do endow “things” with human parts, to humanize them. An interesting perspective develops in the last stanza–“even what was beyond us was recast in our image”–the inverse of God at Creation. I can understand the motivation for this being loneliness (at the beginning), but am not sure how at the end it helps us “to pass into safety.”