Form follows function, muscle follows bone:
The angulation of a sleddog's legs
Obeys a working logic of its own.
The runners' curve serves equally for skis,
Indifferently for water, sand or snow —
Form follows function. Muscle follows bone:
The dogs that draw my sled down drifted trails,
Their movement muscular through sifting snow,
Obey a working logic of their own.
Their skeletons articulate as mine,
Albeit the proportion's theirs alone;
Form follows function — muscle follows bone.
Efficiency's their essence (though not mine —
My body, clumsy shelter for my mind,
Obeys an inner logic not its own):
Four-legged, they run before -- I pump behind.
Form follows function, muscle follows bone,
Obedient to a logic all its own.
