Tug-Of-War

It is a game and a test

Before you and I enter Utopia

Where children run fearlessly and freely,

Passing out never-ending daisies.

 

We each grasp a rope end

And the challenge part is still invisible

But we tug instinctively.

 

I pull you in with my seductive aura

And you inch closer, then rebound.

I tug with careful precision, reeling you in,

And you take the bait, you starved fish.

Like polar magnets, we repel violently

And we both land on our asses

But we go for one more pull

And we pull and we pull and we pull

Until our bodies and souls meet midpoint.

 

It combines in us like rapture.

It computes in us like terror.

 

We both drop our ends

Claiming rope burn

Feebly, half-heartedly,

As though the emotional exertion

Was physically exhausting.

 

You and I walk away

Never toward Utopia

And the children never pass

You and I our daisies.