In 1980 the Yomiuri Giants
signed outfielder Gary Thomasson
for 1.2 million dollars

which he used to birth
a metaphor by sitting
on the bench, hitlessly waving

his bat and spinning,
they said, like
a Giant Human Fan.

And so ‘Thomasson’ came to
represent a contradictory remnant
within our built environment.

Once usefully functional,
now functionally useless,
yet conspicuously maintained.

A doorknob in a wall;
a bridge connecting two halves of air;
a spiral staircase, leading

I don’t know how much God
spent building me, and I could
probably figure the maintenance

from gas bills and groceries
and Netflix subscriptions but
I know the cost to save me

so I so often pray that I am
more than a doorless balcony and
that he would, once, tell me

where my stairs