Poet Dances with Inanimate Object

for Jim Schley

The umbrella, in this case;
Earlier, the stool, the
Wooden pillars that hold up
the roof.

This guy, you realize,
Will dance with anything—
—He likes the idea.

Then he picks up some lady’s discarded sandals,
Holds them next to his head like sea shells,
Donkey ears.

Nothing,
his body states,
Is safe from the dance of ideas!

Cornelius Eady, “Poet Dances with Inanimate Object” from Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon Uniersity Press, 1997). Copyright © 1985 by Cornelius Eady. Used with the permission of the author.

Source: Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1997)