Contracts

Contracts thick as telephone books;
contracts ominous as commandments from God;
contracts like a deep morass of words
writhing with deadly snakes of small print.

 

I imagine carrying the weight, through court,
of a contract on my back as big as a house;
contracts are a cat and I am a mouse.

 

I imagine a contract flipped like a flip book,
blowing me away with the wind of the law
as if I am made of paper, nothing more.

 

Or a company as tall as a giant,
holding a rolled up contract in its hand
to swat me like a little fly
or a contract falling like the sky.

 

I imagine these things and the pen rattles
as my hand trembles above the dotted line;
I imagine these things and know how Faustus felt
when the Devil said to him, "Sign".