My Slinky
By John Herlihy

We go on to become doctors, professors and potentates,
Collecting experience and wealth to amply fill up our plates.
There is no limit to everything that we in our lives desire,
Money, fame, success and a love that sets our hearts on fire.
We leave no stone unturned in pursuing all that we want,
We stick to our guns no matter how much others may taunt.
If the race is there to be done, then we do it so we may win;
If flattery and esteem we aspire, we resort to tall tales to spin.
But nothing, I mean nothing, can truly approach and compare
To the sacred treasures of certain childhood memories, I swear.

I remember the first time that I saw the sweet fall of snow,
Thunder-struck, in awe, the glory of all I might ever know.
I remember the dazzling light of my first Christmas tree,
Mystery, enchantment, and beauty I thought I would never see.
I remember the first time that my cheek was ever kissed,
Kissed by another 12-year-old, a little girl who I always missed.
I remember my first ice skates, I asked for soon after I could talk,
With siblings on a frozen swamp, ice skating before I could walk.
I remember the first time that I saw New York in all its glory,
The city became a part of me, vital to my post-graduate story.

But there is one treasured childhood memory I will never forget,
A memory that will always soothe me whenever I may feel upset.
The sheer delight that filled my heart like cream in a hostess twinkie;
There it lay in a small unpretentious box, my beloved gift, a slinky.
Nothing could compare to the perfect symmetry of its spiral circles,
Glittering in the light of the darkened night in sparkling whirlpools.
Held aloft in my two pudgy little hands, it became the slithering snake,
Moving back and forth in a kind of perpetual motion only I could make.
Then, the most glorious miracle I had ever witnessed in the world at all;
The magical toy marched alone down the steps as I watched enthralled.