A new box of toys
Arrived just today
Presents for the boy
It's his birthday

Once it gets late
The lights fast go out
The soldiers stand straight
Uniform throughout

I watch them walk
In time with each other
A final rifle stock
Lags after its brothers

The stock points to
A one legged man
Stepping into my view
He stops to a stand

I Pirouette upon
A single pink toe
His gaze is drawn
As I turn to and fro

The goblin toy shrieks
Enraged by the scene
The room turned quite bleak
And I try to intervene

I’m too late, and he is gone
Knocked over the windowsill
The weeks drag on
And sadness makes me ill

Finally, a fish brings him
Unwittingly back to the table
He balances on his single limb
Wonderfully welcome and stable

The goblin is gone
But the boy has grown tired
Of his weak soldier pawns
And throws him to the fire

I beg the slight wind
As he begins to melt
Please to blow me in
For the same he was dealt

My paper limbs catch
Crumble to scattered ash
His tin, a heart patch
'Neath the spangle of my sash