Word Play

Horny toads do not sit on lily pads
Just about the same way
rhinoceros do not climb trees
but if they did,
if beets grew above ground
or pineapples shed their own skin
the way snakes do,
how unfamiliar the world might seem
The whole “time and place for everything”
does more than keep order
It makes us feel safe–like we know something
so well that we are all capable of being
an expert in
the way the world works.
But, when Henry David said, “men are like ants,”
he saw our too frequent incapacity to think larger,
dream bigger,
occupy a lily pad.