CLUTCH

Something like a clutch, the two of us
communicate the will to one another
to move, and as one turns the other must,
in contact with his mate, turn with her,
unless the pedal disengages them
and leaves them both to whine alone in air
without a way to know the other’s aim
or use their specious freedom from the pair.

If you protest my model of us makes
one the driving, one the driven, giving
one pride of place, recall life engine-brakes
as often as it climbs, and has us revving
loudest in our worst deceleration,
when on the half that had been blithe about us
is borne a little care with each gyration
to moderate our tumbling apparatus.

So they function best who come to grips,
and travel farthest fastest who beware
the mismatch of intention in the slips
that leave their coupling that much worse for wear;
let us therefore use our hard-won touch
to ride but not to ride it, me and you
pressing close together inasmuch
as is in us to be coming through.