Necessity

Paul pulled his imperfections
outside of himself
and lined them up
like toy soldiers for inspection.

It took all morning
as his imperfections
were not a handful of issues
equal to a squad of ten

but more like an entire corp
somewhere between
twenty and forty-five thousand
rank and file.

He was surprised
when he realized
his well organized imperfections
had support units and a supply chain

with something akin
to a military industrial complex
to lobby for them
state side in his cellular democracy.

Now that his imperfections
were outside of him
Paul looked in the mirror
and noticed he mostly was not there.

One by one he picked up
all of his toy soldier imperfections
and put them back
to their proper places.

copyright © 2021 Kenneth P. Gurney