Collectibles
In search of daily bread,-- for my friend Gary Marshall, who discovered an old poem of mine in a dusty issue of a long forgotten literary magazine called The Motley. The magazine was included in a crate of books and maps and other papers that he purchased at an estate sale -- in hopes of finding something valuable, or at least something collectible. blockquote>
as we all must,
my friend deals in collectibles:antique photos, ancient books,
Casablanca lobby cards,
Hubert Humphrey campaign pins
and I LIKE IKE's,
those antique penny banks
where a coin is pitched
into an iron bulldog's mouth,
a little gyroscope of brass and wire,
spun into balance by a pull of string,
a Duncan yo-yo
that once shot the moon
and then went whirling round the world --Oh! I recall the yo-yo man! --
or, best perhaps of all,
an unused toy in an unopened box --
that's what collectors really prize:like my old poem
in that long unopened magazine,
but slightly read back then and never since,
essentially unused for decades now,
entombed and quite forgot
in its long unopened box.My friend believes there is a living in such stuff,
almost -- at times -- a life.Perhaps he's right.
-- Warren F. O'Rourke, 1985blockquote>