Counting Toast

With banks of gleaming toasters
Upon the bare formica
And loaves and loaves of raw, white bread,
I began counting toast.

One! Two! Three! Four!
All at once from a four-slice toaster
Five, six! Seven, eight!
Two-slice toasters, both.

I buttered and jammed with amazing speed
And passed 'round the joyous toast
And all as one, we chanted loud
We all began counting toast.

Nine! Ten! We shouted with glee.
As toast, like manna, appeared.
Eleven! Twelve! We scrambled fast
To prepare the toast for eating.

And at 12:00, the midnight hour,
The revelation came as a flash
Not guns, but toast! We shouted loud.
Not grenades, but butter knives!

And then, we realized how foolish we'd been
Toast can't solve the world's problems
And so, divested of social burdens,
We returned to counting toast.

Thirteen! Fourteen! The toast was coming fast.
We stuffed our happy faces
Fifteen! Sixteen! The toast  was golden brown.
We ate our toast with joy.

And when we'd eaten the joy that is toast
And smiled at each other enough
We packed up our toasters and threw out our bread
And then we went home and slept.

Back to the Dancing toasters!