What Does It Do and How Does It Work

The novice monk is in the monastery garden raking gravel

The judge is in her chambers, and she’s polishing her gavel

The mayor’s kid is cutting worms in half and watching as they wriggle in the dirt

What does it do, how does it work?

 

In the woods somewhere a circus bear is working through his trauma

In the town the clown who freed the bear folds polka-dot pyjamas

He cries and wipes his pancake make-up face, his smile becomes an evil smirk

What does it do, and how does it work?

 

What gives middle-aged men in fedoras the blues?

How does it work, and what does it do?

 

The aspen asks the maple if it’s able to feel the storm approaching

Aunt Gina tries to weasel out of junior soccer coaching

The anaesthesiologist acknowledges the procedure may still hurt

What does it do, and how does it work?

 

Adam and Eve shook the tree, they were going berserk

Shouting “Lord, what does it do, and how does it work?”

 

You were quiet on the grass, watching the sun go down one evening

I asked how you were feeling - “no, how’re you really feeling?”

So you pulled your heart out of your chest and held it out to me, you got blood on your shirt

You said “here’s what it does, and here’s how it works.”