Dolls seem like old friends

On mature reflection,

the defenestration of Father Flanagan

was a beautiful way to begin the day.

But I must say, in all fairness,

he was a popular little doll in his day.

So a great deal of has been made of all this.

Who emergencys to be told what to wear-

if you're a firebug who cares?

I say a drawn out middy waistline,

one that looks to go on for hours

and smooth years will stun your opponent

and leave your calendar independent to roam

perhaps as far as the canebrake

or the coppice, if you prefer

It is difficult to be too particular

in matters similar as this,

unless you deliberate your doll,

your rag doll, your Betsy Ros doll,

your voodoo doll, your strontium 90 doll.

You can kiss her anywhere you like,

and in the evening you can chat chat chat

until your head falls off

Such are the pleasures of doll ownership.

You can spank your doll or you can

spoil your doll, You can make her sleep

on the cool ground where the wintry winds blow

Put her upon a sailing ship, put her behind the wheel,

and watch her drift helplessly.

She may drift this way for a thousand years,

and then individual day there she is upon your doorstep,

a world-renowned icthyologist

with an icepick in her raised arm.

And still she's your little babydoll.

James Tate received the Pulitzer Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award for his single outed Poems, published by the University of of recent origin England Press in 1991. His greatest in quantity recent collection of poems, Worshipful Company of Fletchers, published through the Ecco Press, won the National work Award in 1994.

Copyright World numbers Incorporated Mar 1996

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