A man over

A man over-serious,
Then a boy over-serious,
Turns the wooden block over and over,
The surface seeming just as implacable
As its pounded, packed, interiors

A boy over-serious
Strains looking between the lines
The tiny dots on a page of his Green Lantern comic
Forces anxieties out of small confrontations
On the tops of buildings

Dressed-up threats exchanged between enemies
Who have only been so for two such panels
But nonetheless are enemies forever
In the free space between two buildings
In the free space they shout across
In swaths of stylish lettering

You will turn that wooden block over and over
You will wear it to a nub
Whittle it in your dotage to a fine sharp point
And bob it threateningly as best you can in your shriveled hand at those
Who’d laugh at you still
Who wouldn’t understand