What Looks Like a Puppet to a Quiet Man

Anything can

I pick up a potato

I make it talk

It doesn’t talk

Unless I want it to

That’s power

That’s god-like

To pick up a potato

And have it talk

About the weather?

Who can do that?

I have nothing

To say

About the weather

Not as me

Only as the potato

The potato knows

That you want to hear

What it thinks

About the weather

And I know

That you have no interest

In listening

To what I have to say

About the weather

So why would I just let

The potato sit there

Not saying anything

And speak for myself

While you pretend to listen?

Doesn’t make much sense

Does it?

Anything can be a puppet

If you put your mind to it

And as your mind is put

You put it towards

What you think

That thing

Would want

To talk about

Potatoes want

To talk about

The weather

Pot-holders want

To talk about

Sports

Spoons like politics

Forks religion

A knife wants to confess

A spatula just flips out on you

That was a joke

You thought I was crazy

But not funny, right?

Surprise you to know

A person can be both?

Back in olden times

People spoke

Using only themselves

And then one day

A man made a puppet

And had it say something

And people thought

It was witchcraft

And then they thought
It was entertainment

All the things

We used to think

Would send us

To Hell

Now get given to us

On television

What a thing

I pick up a potato

And the potato says

It’s going to rain

And then it does

Does that seem like
Magic to you?

Because it wasn’t raining

Before the potato

Said it would

Of course

This is Seattle

So odds are

If a potato says

It’s going to rain

...It might rain

But when it does

As you’re holding the potato
And making it predict something

And then the thing does

What the potato

Said it would

As you were holding it

The feeling

That comes over you

Is luscious

It’s as close as you get

To thinking

You can make things happen

Just because

You pick something up

And you ask yourself

What it has

To say