how to copy files to the current user profile upon logon

Hello, 

I'm trying to create a powershell script that will execute upon a user logging into the machine.  What the script will do is copy the C:\users\default\desktop\ directory and create/replace the identical/missing items in the target directory, which is their user profile.

In windows command line the command I had written was this

copy c:\users\default\desktop\* %profile%\desktop

I've tried using the command

Copy-item C:\users\default\desktop\* %profile%\desktop -recurse but it seems the %profile% reference does not work with powershell. Can someone please provide me with the correct syntax of the equivalent powershell command to my command line example?