I watch as he pokes
and pushes at padlocks
storm sewers
a chain link fence.
He is consumed by the feeling
of objects pressing
their strange bodies
into his hands.
He runs over to me
with a stick
confident
that I have also
never seen
so beautiful
a thing.
I try not to think
about those strings of words
so common you forget
their beastly reality
poke
your
eye
out
but now they are short films
that play in the shadowy
parts of my mind
as my child
innocent and reckless
falls on the cement again
taking my heart down
with him.