sentimental mercantilism

investors will bid higher when my action
figures return to the freemarket
We were – all of us -- the child lounging in a bedroom
with all these worthless, vibrant things
clutching Supermen like roses

tough fighters stand in rows
my chinese bedroom tomb
with japanese soldiers
made in taiwan

shrewdly consider a collector’s gut:
businesses falter under
unchecked greed
and golds diminishing
as veins cut open are rfb , sent to mint

only in Original Crust does metal
hold the deepest, imagi-
nation’s Pure

unless you are a coin collector
(in their economy, $0.05 is worth $193.16
and a little sliver of gold is priceless
when a character from a history book scowls
to the conqueror’s horizon

a palm’s curved edge)

what i mean to say is:
once we held this hotel ticket
signed by Jimi Hendrix
his letters sharp and jammed together like two ecstatic riffs
i wished it were mine.