Wound up tin toys.
A row of ducks, a ladybug, a locomotive.
Set upon a bare wood floor
With whirrs and clicks
To run for preset times.
Wound up music boxes and carousels.
Ballerinas and horses
In predetermined spins
Set in time to the music’s meter.
Wound up spheres swirl
In predestined eddies and gyres.
Collide, explode, and devour.
Unwound, the die is cast.
Fate is sealed.
A row of ducks, a ladybug, a locomotive
Sit upon a vacuous plane
Unseen and unheard.
©cmheuer, October, 2019
