Before you knew you owned it it 
was gone, stolen, and you were a fool. 
How you never felt it is the wonder, 
heavy and thick, 
lodged deep in your hair like a burr. 
You still see the smile of the magician 
as he turned the coin in his long fingers 
which had so disturbed your ear 
with their caress. You watched him 
lift it into the light, bright as frost, 
and slip it into his maze of pockets. 
You felt vainly behind your ear 
but there was no second coin,
 nothing to tempt him back. 
No one cared to know why he did it, only how.