opposable thumbs won’t save us from ourselves
though they’ve helped exaggerate the drama sliding
toward denouement without free overdraft protection

only therapists and bomb-sniffing dogs, three months
or three thousand miles, whichever comes first.
Opposable thumbs won’t save us from ourselves

as your toddler shuffles in, lifts up the sheet and asks
his mommy if he can have a chipmunk, too. Little people
don’t care about free overdraft protection, oblivious

each whenever contains its own history, bootcrunch
and snort, the ding, ding, ding of the microwave warming
opposable thumbs that won’t save us from ourselves,

the swollen grapes blowing autumn down the river
through the village, those diligent shops and steeples,
the promise of free overdraft protection, ibid, ergo,

ad infinitum…. Let the poem fracture prosody,
the tonic go flat, opposable thumbs won’t save us
from ourselves, the office file crammed

with spooky government forms. Why live
in the stable of free overdraft protection. Darling,
I love how we somersault, how we bounce.