The cardboard man goes through the motions
Wake Up
Eat
Work
Eat
Work
Home
TV
Sleep.
Day after day he goes through the motions
Unblinking
Unfeeling
The curse of the lack of life
That courses through his paper-based extremities
Daddy look what I made
He cannot reply
Because his eyes are rendered unseeing
Daddy aren’t you proud?
He can only offer the same look that he has given the world
Day after day
As he goes through the motions
Unable to differentiate important moments from those awful, repetitive motions
At the backyard barbeque, the soccer game, the graduation
His smile is printed on, an expression somewhere between
Indifferent and
Mildly happy
Daddy, tell me I’ve done a good job
But he cannot
Because he must go through the motions
Although his cardboard cutout
Seems appealing to the strangers we call friends who know no better