Thomas Jefferson

By Jessica Laser

I said I was a horse
because I like to be compelled.

You said it when you called
adulthood learning
to live according to your values.

Could you have a value
that says it is my value
to have values that do not conflict?

A horse just carries
obedience gracefully,
like that one choice you made
without deliberating.

Thomas Jefferson invented
the swivel chair, apparently
desiring to build all sides
of an argument into a piece
of furniture, and even if,
with that reading, I wouldn’t
at first agree, I could see
swiveling my way there.

I said I was a horse but
of course I was a chair.

And the chair I was is the horse
I will be, that’s how I get
all the legs I need.

Who hasn’t once or twice
said the wrong thing?
Who hasn’t said something right?

Sometimes the right words lag
behind you, and you are their horse
for a season, for a season
you are their transportation.