Joseph Wordsmith - An Amusing Elastic Sheet

In my minds eye I see an elastic sheet from which an imprint can be seen of a face trying to break through and arms and hands and fingers too! And when I look around I see others who have gotten free up to their waist or knees, but the sheet is elastic so once they go up, they inevitably go down. If you look carefully at all these forms, you'll see, they huddle together, like mountain ranges or waves, at first alone, in a group and then in pairs and groups of pairs. While they struggle to fight this elastic sheet, from this pair, a smile of elation will sometimes creep. Oh what a thing, their faces dance and sing! But the blanket's tension is hard to keep, not long is it before it goes flat, almost asleep. And then you see the most curious thing, those around mourn the flatness from where there was form but is no more. Then new faces, never the same, fight the tension of the sheet and surface in abundance, just to see the faces from seconds before go from a peak to a flat sheet, pairs broken and the groups split with agony. And so it goes, they grow, struggle, stress, find their pair, flatten and are missed. Grow, struggle, stress, find their pair, flatten and are missed. And then another grows, struggles, stresses, finds their pair, are flattened and are missed. The odd thing is, once they are flattened and missed, the ones who missed are flattened too and new faces miss them too! You hardly have to take three breaths before those who were flattened and those who missed are flattened too. So that all who were missed and miss are gone, forgotten with a batch anew to miss and be missed too! Why they do this, I haven't a clue?

Joseph Wordsmith

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-amusing-elastic-sheet/