Cassette Minds

I awoke one morning
and looked around my room
Everything was just
as it should be

My eyes fell on
my old boom box
I stared at it
for a moment or two

The CD and PLAY buttons
turned to two eyes
The cassette player
turned to a mouth

Its button eyes
fell on me,
just as mine had
fallen on it

It opened its mouth
and spit out an
old cassette tape
that had been left there

"Tastes like garbage,"
it said to me
"Plays like it, too,"
it added

The four faces on
the cassette case
glared up at the
bulky black box

"We're right here,"
said one face
"We take offense to that,"
said another

The boom box peered
down at the talking heads
and stuck its wiry tongue
out at the case

"I have opinions, too,"
said the machine
"Yeah, well, we have feelings,"
said a face

The front man dropped his
'Rooms $2.50' sign and
tried to break through
the plastic case

The front man's friends
calmed him down
"Yeah, you're stuck there,"
teased the box

The faces turned to me
One said:
"See? We have to put up with this."
I just stared

"You're not worthy of
us in your mouth!"
barked a face
They were all upset

"I don't want you
in my mouth!"
snapped the machine
"Go find another player!"

"You're right next to a
'passenger loading only' sign,"
added the box
"Get going, passengers"

"Does it look like we
can go anywhere?"
asked a face
The machine rolled its eyes

The four faces reached up
and pulled down the blinds
over the large glass
window they were standing in

The boom box scoffed,
"Those annoying creatures
As long as I'm in one piece,
I'll never understand humans"