Five Poems

'Not twenty-four, but fourteen years …
It's tempting still - so what's the price?'

'You've read the literature,
You know the going rate.'

'Something valueless or else invaluable,
Either whatever never was, or else
What always will be.'

'Let's not talk of market forces.
As prices go,
The price is modest.'

'To disagree would be immodest in me.
Yet if you really want it
The commodity must have its worth.'

'Call it a whim of mine,
Call it collector's mania,
...