Paean to the Paperclip

If Corporate America has karma
then reincarnation follows thereafter
and we’ll all return as office supplies:
 
some as staplers to double pin-prick 
with hairbreadth metal
that traps in collapse;
 
some as brads to puncture
before unfolding robot wings 
unseen below,
 
some as prong fasteners 
reaching through pre-made holes 
for their own metal straightjackets, 
 
some as bulldog clips,
some as butterfly clamps,
some as ravenous hole punchers.
 
I myself hope to come back
as a paperclip
serene in its simplicity,
 
a single wire curled into two
steel tongues 
like a CFO’s infinity
 
which, when bent out of shape,
still functions well enough
to unlock a pair of handcuffs.

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