Theories About the Universe
I am trying to see things in perspective.
My dog wants a bite of my peanut butter
chocolate chip bagel. I know she cannot have this,
because chocolate makes dogs very sick.
Madigan does not understand this.
She pouts and wraps herself around my leg
like a scarf, trying to convince me to give her
just a tiny bit. When I do not give in,
she eventually gives up and lays in the corner
under the piano, drooping and sad.
I hope the universe has my best interest in mind
like I have my dog’s. When I want something
with my whole being, and the universe withholds it
from me, I hope the universe thinks to herself,
Silly girl. She thinks this is what she wants,
but she does not understand how it will hurt.
■
I am trying to see things in perspective.
My dog wants a bite of my peanut butter
chocolate chip bagel. I know she cannot have this,
because chocolate makes dogs very sick.
Madigan does not understand this.
She pouts and wraps herself around my leg
like a scarf, trying to convince me to give her
just a tiny bit. When I do not give in,
she eventually gives up and lays in the corner
under the piano, drooping and sad.
I hope the universe has my best interest in mind
like I have my dog’s. When I want something
with my whole being, and the universe withholds it
from me, I hope the universe thinks to herself,
Silly girl. She thinks this is what she wants,
but she does not understand how it will hurt.
■
“Theories About the Universe” appears in Blythe Baird’s collection If My Body Could Speak (2019), which you can purchase from Button Poetry here.