ON THE RELIGIOUS ICONOGRAPHY OF MORNING CEREAL BOXES IN POLYTHEISTIC CULTURES COUPLED WITH A CHARMING GLIMPSE OF MY OWN LITERACY JOURNEY

Too young to read, I scanned heiroglyphic
Boxtops like church signs in ancient Egypt.
Striped tiger, enthroned on deep blue, a rain god
Who buried grreat treasure in his toy crypt.
The fire god - rainbow-beaked toucan - bid his
Loopies hallow him as "Sam." Golden crisped
Sun-god bear wafts sugary sweet puffs
Of incense through wired worshippers' piss.


But, I learned: Trix rabbit ain't no trickster,
Count Chocula no negro vamp. Franken
Berry did not transgender, and Fred's bright
Pebbles ain't Flinstone fruit poop a-stankin'.
Too old to believe boxtop gods are real,
I left Old Egypt for modern oatmeal.