COMIC BOOKS Vinyl covered wooden box filled with comics books Over the years they got all torn up like the mice got in and tore them up But you can read them, if you don't mind reading two pages (at most) at one time Fragments of stories that begin and end smack dab, right in the middle of a story Wonder Woman, deflecting bullets and rescuing tied-up army guys Oswald the Lucky Rabbit "sets hand" in the golliwog-guarded underground kooky paradise Where fountains of strawberry milkshakes erupt and rubber-hose mice dance on piano keys A cape-wearing Do-Gooder flies through the air beginning an era of commercial flight Fight off cosmic villains and Space-Rumpelstiltskins and make the world safe for the American Flag Some pages aren't even pages at all just a shred with two pictures, or only one picture Or just half a picture, a leg in a boot a chicken looking goofy, an orange-clad hero A hand with a grenade, a dressed-up weasel a woman's face with her hand over her mouth A detective with a gun, a prince on a horse a grinning alligator up to no good Bulbous automobile, dancing frogs chubby girls with yellow curls, ham radio operators They say that old comic books are worth lots of money but only if never mutilated by children So go ahead, and enjoy the confetti that tells stories for nothing in a heap of flakes like a paper kaleidoscope that busts up stories and provides a fun compost of pictures and words Unburdened by value, a plaything once more and return to pulp from whence it came Brian Dewan 2003