Gepetto Also Made a Mother

There is nothing imaginary about a piece of wood.
It has its life, like you or I, and returns to the ocean.
Gravity won't allow the wheel to roll up a hill.
Having no imagination, a piece of wood doesn't care
if it becomes a fan blade, a coffee table, or a little wheel
on a wooden horse. Real marionettes have no strings.
Real horses, arriving at a hill, may or may not climb it.
This has nothing to do with freewill, an invention
of purely academic interest.
The Chinese invented stirrups, and their hills
have been covered with horses ever since.

On a clear day, the ocean goes on forever.
Like Oedipus alone on a hilltop, this is a literary device
used to demonstrate the value of beachfront property.
Italian literature has never had room for gravity.
Like you or I, it has its life, returning always to the ocean.
It doesn't care if it becomes something to cover a coffee table.
Strings pull real wooden horses. This is an example
of the imposition of freewill on inanimate objects.
There is nothing imaginary about the historic
importance of the stirrup's role.  On a clear day,
it is possible to see wooden storks clouding the air.

This poem appears in the 2008 Anthology
View all poems by Noah Eli Gordon