Poetry Sample - My Friend Plays With a Yoyo While Waiting at the Gas Station

Commission: Poem

Prompt: I want you to write from the perspective of a toy.

My Friend Plays With a Yoyo While Waiting at the Gas Station

You try to flee as far from your source as possible —

spinning — plummeting — jouncing off your leash,

you choke and gasp and flail but the cold white thread

drags you back. If you had hands, you’d cut it, but you don’t.

Your hands are a figment and the cold white thread drags you back.

Your hands are a figment and you’d knot yourself to prove their reality
if only you knew how.