The Toggle Switch Poem by Mike Finley

Everything we know suggests decline.
Pebbles tumble down the mountain.
The whale lies panting on the sand.
My love for you, which was undying, fades.

It is a wind-down world, and we place
a chair under every doorknob
to slow down the entropy, to slow down
the dying programmed into every cell.

But what if there is a toggle switch
located on the right side of the universe,
and flicking it winds us up instead of down?
Play with it yourself, and see.

Down, we slip into death and depression.
Flick up, the sun lights up the tomb.
Instead of draining we recharge,
Instead of dying we find power.

Diving backwards from pool to board,
Hearts quickening, love growing,
The need for hyperactivity dwindling
because it was always all right all the while.



(2006)