PoetryAloud

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Robert King Reads

Comparisons

        In the middle of a river, I listen
to the businessman comparing business
        to an orchestra, each instrument
 
        properly contributing,
each part a part of the whole.
        The orchestra, however,
 
        compares itself to a river–
flutes of light, cellos bubbling along
        in the push and flow
 
        of adagio, crescendo,
allegro–in rushes and deep swirling.
        But this current river
 
        compares itself placidly
to a business, all its appropriate
        liquid departments
 
        working in unison
toward singular goals, closing up shop
        here, opening there,
 
        reorganizing itself now
through a downturn of driftwood,
        so the two of us stop
 
        humming our various tunes
and backpaddle furiously in order
        not to go bankrupt, get flat, or wet.


[First published: Old Man Laughing (Ghost Road Press, 2007]

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