Coupling

This is part one of a two part poem. Weird as it is to say, I was inspired to write this while chasing my cereal around the bowl one rainy Saturday morning. I noticed that usually when one Cheerio was near another they seemed drawn to each other, like some magnetic force compelled them to one another. There's actually a scientific reason for this. Anyway, my writing group seemed to enjoy the first draft. I've worked on it some since then, so hopefully it's better. :) I'll post part two next Sunday.

Coupling I

How is it some couples seem to naturally pair?
Like the Cheerios in my breakfast bowl
they drift toward one another--
sometimes coasting into crowds
comprised of individual rings
but other times butting up in twos
to cling near the edge of their world.
Rarely do I find that solo Cheerio,
who, by the way, doesn't look so cheery.
Usually softened, maybe slightly misshapen,
he roams all over the ecru
surface of the skim milk,
He may occasionally hook up
with some group of o's,
but not for long.
He'll detach and wander away,
maybe because my spoon has come between
him and the object of his attraction.
Other times, he seems to bounce off
the others, seemingly repulsed,
or maybe he just enjoys his solitude,
his time alone to splash against the tide
of milk or laze away in the bubbles.
I call this lonesome rover "he;"
it could just as easily be "she."
Females can wander,
enjoy time apart from others.

Watching the rings lap lazily
at the sides of my white bowl,
a homogeneous group of like-visioned
individuals, I wonder if a rebel heart
buoys to the surface.
Does one beige cheerio ever long
to escape the green-rimmed white plastic
and dive into a fiesta red dish
bobbing with fruit loops?
Does she ever want to break
the chains holding her to the same place,
visit a wilder atmosphere,
chase a lucky charm?
Or will she eventually give up the dream,
settle in suburbia with the equally bland
but wholesome and slightly square
shredded wheat?
What will she do
before the thought of life
gobbling her up, one bite at a time
drives her to settle?
Or will she give in to self-absorption,
wallow on her own for a while,
and then eventually sink
to the bottom of the bowl?