Contemplative
for Sonia Isaacs

even if my chin’s down, I’m up
to be helpful, “Chin up!” she summoned,
two-word motivational speech

artist too, she must know “The Thinker,”
Auguste Rodin

were she to say to him, “Chin up!”
Western civilization,
like the thinker’s chin,
rests upon his right arm,
right hand balled into a fist

would she want the world to topple over,
all of us to topple off


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
5:07 p.m. 30/09/07