Toy With a New Kid

[couchgrouch]

Toy With a New KidThe first thing I saw was his smiling, freckled facewhen he pulled me from that box on Christmas Dayhe laid out my tracks and I scared the fam'ly dogstreaming through a station made of Lincoln Logshis dreams rode me coast to coasteven when safe in bedO my old boxcars, never rolled as faras a toy with a new kidafter his 10th birthday things weren't the sameI cluttered the floor while he played video gameshis mom wrote "five dollars" on my red cabooseand sold me in a crate next to Candyland and ClueI know three-wheeled Matchbox Carsand torn up catcher's mittsand they each say their happiest dayswere as a toy with a new kidone day a garbageman, pulled me from a canwhere someone had tossed me outhe glued up the crack, in my old smokestackset me on a table in his houseturns out he'd been letting the wheels of winetake him back to a less, lonely timenow he sees my track and his heart climbs aboardhis whole life seems laid out ahead once moresomehow I took him wherehis childhood dreams were hida toy with an old man, rolls much further thana toy with a new kid(c)2007 Robert George