You come from Sri Lanka, Said the toy-shop keeper at Patti's Settlement, I know, your skin Tones are different from Indian, Not brown, a kind of slate, And you have that gentleman's gait -- When we lived in Virginia, My son's pediatrician Was Tamil from Sri Lanka And finely made, his face Has stayed imprinted On my brain for twenty years -- Here most toys come from China, American labor is too expensive, But the dolls in the back, Fashioned in Ohio, weigh as much As real babies . . . That seahorse Is not as heavy as the rest, If that's what you want, Two dollars ninety-nine Will be enough, and that Train for the tree, it's nothing At all, a dime . . . Twenty years Is a long time. Come back again. http://www.middlebury.edu/~nereview | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A HUNDRED COLLARS by ROBERT FROST THERE IS NO NATURAL RELIGION (B) by WILLIAM BLAKE RONDEAU by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT AT FREDERICKSBURG [DECEMBER 13, 1862] by JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY THE DARK FOREST by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS |