The Bathtub (2001)

The Bathtub (2010)
 Illustration comes nearly ten years after poem was created.

The world was flat when I was born

And edgy on every side

Explorers attempted to make her round

Yet failed each time they tried

Something was glowing down underneath

When they peered o’er the rugged rim

Pulsating as might a wonderful sphere

Though the light was far off and dim

They speculated with all their might

On how it might be obtained

This longed-for orb in the firmament

Where all their hopes remained

We want our ships to disappear

As we near a far-off distance

We want to sail west to reach somewhere east

Was their uttermost insistence

So I, as their king, financed their dream

And hinting toward the outer realm

Appointed cartographer, navigator, cook

And lastly the one at the helm

Good luck I said and Godspeed to all

As they leapt off the precipice then

With parachutes strapped to their brave, sturdy backs

To guide these adventurers in

How quickly they faded into the inky black

Precariously gliding away

Singing their songs of untamed oceans

While holding the unknown at bay

I kept on waving and smiling until

They drifted out of our sight

Convinced of the wisdom of my royal decision

As that disk lit up our night

I settled into eating grapes

Reposing there on my chaise

A look of glib authority

Residing on my face

The village united in opposing views

Though nobody really much cared

Only a few shared the seeking heart

While most were most comfortable scared

I alone was cognizant

Of what the fate would be

Of those few men who placed their stock

In decisions arrived at by me

I’d already been where they’d yet to go

And knew that the light was round

But there was no life on that little rock

That fact had already been found

Twas gently whispered in my listening ear

On the day of my kingly birth

When I fluttered down from the Heavens above

And took up my post on Earth

So off they searched, this bothersome bunch

Good riddance was all I could think

I knew my own boundaries I knew my own place

In this bathtub that just doesn’t sink