the belly button in the american beauty poster

National Poetry Writing Month 2025, Day 4

there is a certain magic to being a child in new york city
in the (late) 90s
riding the subway every day to school
and waking up one morning to new posters
new ads
throughout your home station

an act an adult might look at too practically
to a child though,
it feels like an impossible task,
one santa may not even be worthy of.

the perception, a metaphor on its own—
what’s here one day may be gone another
before you know it.

but the metaphor is lost;
too naïve for an adult to see it that way,
subway station posters change, after all.
and a child unable to see the metaphor
perhaps because they are the metaphor?

the posters change,
the days move on,
one day, you realize this is just someone’s job and not an act of magic.

gone is the magic,
gone is the belly button in the american beauty poster,
gone is the metaphor,
gone is the wonder.