As If Perpetual

Guided energy drives it forward
trailing sentiment and memory,
a steel marble, a ball bearing rolling
in the moving salad bowl of the universe
round and round, pushed by its weighty habit
of motion, surprised, as its orbital integrity goes
out of round.

A wobble develops
schlepping the heavy sphere
into terminal disinterest of the bowl whose
mission is motion.

Wait! Not yet. Look here.
The orbital trail breaks up like
a staticky cell phone in a long tunnel

losing the instructions. Purpose lumps
out of focus. The stainless surface develops
rust pits no longer rubbed off by the
abrasion of love.

The rump rump sound of
slowing before sight is lost accompanies a
glimpse of the rim of the bowl from its bottom
as it tips out the dust.