I have a friend who is like
little balls of mercury on a table
And you have to corral them all together.
How are you able
to corral loose mercury on a table?
So I just hold my hands on the sides of the table
and hope to catch the
wild, little balls before they fall off,
because if they fell on the floor,
they might be stepped on and make
that many more
wild, little balls of mercury.
There’s no putting my friend
back in some conventional tube.
My friend is like toothpaste squeezed from the tube.
There’s no going back.
My friend can’t even be scooped.
And so, my friend remains
wild and crazy
and I still hold my hands
at the table’s edge
so my friend doesn’t fall off
and onto his head.