A rubber band is made to stretch,
But its power is to contract.
It is a close binder of goods--
It unites what it keeps intact.
Love is a binder of people--
It surrounds as a loving net.
It stretches around to include,
It contracts to make intimate.
We can resist it till it snaps
Or wear out its pulling matter--
One is painful, one exhausting,
And in the end we all scatter.
A small and languid river eddy
Swirls foamy bubbles round and round.
So slow, so weak, yet still it moves
The bubbles that to it are bound.
Some that break free and move along
Are snagged in yet another stall,
More slowly moving than the first
Where change comes hard or not at all.
Unhindered by the cloying banks
All this while the center flows--
A downhill slide in rippling chatter
As toward the sea it onward goes.
Attired in myriad shades
Of green and asphalt
And sequined with bright splashes
Of reddish clover
And silvery maned grasses,
The countryside flashes by
As images of Magied camels
Compete with jaw-stretching yawns.
Time to change drivers.
