Ode to Measuring Tape

For this poem, I imitated the poet Neruda's style. He takes simple everyday (often under-appreciated) objects and writes beautiful poems about them. In his poems, Neruda uses line breaks very freely; he often has one descriptive word on a line by itself. He also depicts the objects as heroic. For this assignment, we were to pick an object out of a bag. I randomly selected a measuring tape.


The measuring tape
lengthy
intelligent
a jump rope
of numbers
ready
to share
the knowledge
patient
flexible
laid back
yet precise


created to aid
the creators
who will treasure
and care for
this jump rope
of brilliance
coiled
or stretched 
out
always ready
to jump into
action
gentle
like a butterfly
strong minded
like an elephant
constantly consistent
never skipping
the necessary


tiny digits
grow
larger
all equally profound


viciously versatile
gauge
all that comes
to mind
snake like
or stick like
always there for 
the creator
patient and intelligent