Need

By Steve McCord

Need steps on toes, is a squeaky wheel and a gifted ventriloquist;
Need once awoke wearing clown shoes, tripped and fell in perpetuity.
Need is a patch kit, the hole in the tire and the hissing air;
Need looks in the mirror, but often doesn’t recognize itself;
Need is a funny word, but not in a ha-ha kind of way.

Need is a curriculum of cumulous clouds above a Ferris wheel of screaming children;
each of them our self at a different age;
Need is double-jointed, double parked and honks its horn indiscriminately.
Need bought the condo right below gluttony and keeps banging on the ceiling with a broom handle;
Need deals from the bottom of the deck and fondles an ace up its sleeve.
Need doesn’t want you know that it is the insomniac, not you.

Need shouts from the rooftop, whispers from the basement and street walks Madison Avenue in a halter top;
Need rhymes with bleed, creed, greed and is the antonym of both freed and Godspeed.
Need can or can’t hold its breath longer than your self-discipline… true or false?
Need adamantly disagrees with all of the above!

Need wants to point out that every now and then it does possess a valid driver’s license.
Need finally had the good sense to serve an impersonation cease & desist order to its wayward cousin Want.
Need sometimes is the last to know that we are only informed on a need to know basis.