Mistaking Nostalgia For Injustice Poem by Melissa Nikolova

Do you remember those little kid Valentine’s Day cards?
Those small, foiled pieces of cardboard,
They defined you.

Every year those little status symbols would crowd the stores.
“I got the ones with Batman! ”
Or
“I got Mickey Mouse! ”
When either of those phrases was shouted,
You quickly became the envy of the class.
They were all themed, sold in sets of 30...
It was enough for one classroom,
Some left over for you to covet,
Those wishes left un-given.
At least one entire school day was dedicated to it…
And back then, if a school day was lost to it,
It was the single most remarkable thing in the world.
The teacher helped you turn shoeboxes into mailboxes,
And everyone got a card,
No one was allowed to be skipped,
That was the rule.
Even if hours were spent debating on which would go where.
Even if the cool kids always, inevitably, ended up with the “best” ones,
Everyone still got one.
Wouldn’t the world be nicer if we went back to that?
Everyone gets one.
Senders can be anonymous,
And even with the slight favoritisms,
In the end:
The Valentine’s Day Cards themselves still love you.