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Where do you put your coffee table book if you don’t
have a coffee table?
There are myriad options if your doing the obvious is
unavailable.
You could put your book on an ordinary bookshelf,
But walking by an overhanging book might cause injury to
yourself.
Standing your book on end on a top shelf might be
appealing,
Though locating your book so high might cause the volume
to hit the ceiling.
You could use the book as a desk for your lap,
But, if you cannot sit and work all the time, your book
becomes something of a trap.
A long book across the arms of a dining chair
Might, to a small child’s booster seat, favorably
compare.
If your mattress sags in a single weak spot,
A good stiff coffee table book might increase your
comfort a lot.
(Though a book in the bed
Hardly ever gets read.)
A coffee table book with an especially attractive dust
jacket
Could become a decorative wall hanging if supported by
an appropriate bracket.
Your book, lying prone and supported at either end,
Might even itself to be a bookshelf pretend.
Or, if supporting the book with decorative legs you are
able,
Your coffee table book could simply become a coffee
table.
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I began the poem by writing the first line. That line created a proper context,
but it seemed an unconventional base to work from. I remembered that
Ogden Nash, one of my favorite poets, freely used long lines without too
much concern about meter. This gave me permission to do the same.
