Price Range

All grown-ups were children first. (But 

few remember it.)

                ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

The one-of-a-kind heirloom

under glass is roped off,

a proper distance

from museum onlookers

who afford a pocket-sized price

to applaud, not hold

dear to heart,

trumpeted treasure.

The search for fulfilling riches

at reasonable cost

overflows to streets

onto big-box stores and back-alley

vendors with knock-off deals.

Possessions glitter the path to satisfied

heartbeats despite night’s

isolation.

Having more seems happier

for many adults.

Once they’ve outgrown Neverland,

men and women get painted over

by agendas,

forget how to feed themselves 

with hearty nourishment freely given

by fairies, pirates, and mermaids.

Lost from to-do lists is one-of-a-kind Pan, 

clad in skeleton leaves

and juices that flow from trees, 

who keeps his heart forever young.

© Patsy Asunción, 2017

 Pan and Wendy, cover, 1915
from Wikimedia Commons