Four unsmiling wizards
Hair everywhere
Trapped in a two-dimentional
square of paper and plastic
Father turns it over in his hands
Consulting it importantly
before carefully placing
it in the shopping cart
ii. Rick Martin Rookie Card
Lying in bed
Awake in the dark
when they get home
Babysitter paid
they enter the room
and present a present
A tiny pack of glory
Under the gum
hidden within flat images
of rugged men with sticks
I find a handsome hero
iii. Reflection
Forty years old
memories of objects
Yet no solid memories
of word or voice or touch
from this same time
I could conclude
a sad and lonely life
The beginnings of
an obsession with stuff
But I prefer to assume
that these flat miracles
were unique artifacts
in a young life filled
to mundane capacity with
word and voice and touch
