Nostalgia Man Rises

We waded in the desert, or programmed our remotes.

We ate spiceless food and shopped for cultures.

Whole complements of firms competed for our childhoods.

Figurines emerged and were exoticized for depth.

Now even cop shows background in superhero code.

The monomyth groans for the lonely. I can't fault

these serial blinders. There are real terrors

and they are hard to manage. Franchises give order.

This all happened before you were born,

before the origin stories ate the bones of all narrative.

One summer in the 80s, every month

brought a new small boy with a robot.

Their dads were scared of scarcity and Russia.

I am scared of pulpits and momentum. And scarcity and Russia.

I have the tone of a movie that used to be a book.

I am a scene in which nobody is running, eyes aflame,

into a sabotage of genre. Themes and credits

are not at my perimeter. My lessons are so small and episodic.