THE PLASTIC BOAT

I was a plastic canoe on a river,
in a slalom race.

Various truths marked the winding course.
Never did I hit a pole.

Was I happy?
I don’t know.
I want to believe that I wasn’t unhappy.

I won the race,
but I wasn’t the only winner.
There were millions of us,
five hundred,
maybe seven hundred million winners.

The losers—oh! there were so many of them—were trussed,
then drowned in the cold waters of the river,
by the canoeists.

See,
the losers were people,
but the winners like me were just boats.

I am a boat.
I am just a plastic boat.

I know this doesn’t make sense.

::: ::: :::

[Picture: The race by reading_is_dangerous]