Like the proverbial deckchair movers on the Titanic
We go about our business
Rearranging the things we know won’t change anything
Or make a real difference.
We should know better but we do it anyway
Move one thing here and
Then get a better idea and move it back but
Turned so we think it’s new or
Would fool other people who don’t get it
Don’t understand the way we play
The game.
It’s as if we are stuck in one gear and can’t get
Out of it, a stuck clutch, nothing much.
Like the one about doing the same thing over
And over and expecting a different outcome
Or the Emerson one about foolish consistency
That hobgoblin of little minds like ours.
We rearrange the same thoughts, pretend
A newness and then move on
With the same old, same old with a new gloss
Feeling a fix as our Titanic goes down.
J. K. Durick is a retired writing teacher and online writing tutor. His recent poems have appeared in Literary Yard, Vox Poetica, Synchronized Chaos, Madswirl, Pendemic, and Eskimo Pie.