Things

Portrait of Lisel Mueller
Lisel Mueller 1924–2020

What happened is, we grew lonely living among the things, so we gave the clock a face, the chair a back, the table four stout legs which will never suffer fatigue.

We fitted our shoes with tongues as smooth as our own and hung tongues inside bells so we could listen to their emotional language,

and because we loved graceful profiles the pitcher received a lip, the bottle a long, slender neck.

Even what was beyond us was recast in our image; we gave the country a heart, the storm an eye, the cave a mouth so we could pass into safety.

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