This lifeless construction, Yellow hair curled and twisted, The forever motionless face of rubber, The dark marked eyebrows, The flexible pug nose, Spongy red cheeks, Camel's-hair eyebrows Moving up and down. Lifting her up, her eyes fly open, They stare into space -- An unmoving blueness. Those never winking, moving balls, Controlled from the inside, And that thick rubber body, The imprint of a navel, The undersized hands, The thick soft knees, The screwed-on head, The air hole behind her neck, All this in its lifelessness Gives me a feeling That children are amazing To imagine such a thing alive. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONTRA MORTEM: THE BEING by HAYDEN CARRUTH LOVE'S MIRACLE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON DOWN BY THE CARIB SEA: 2. LOS CIGARILLOS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: MRS. SIBLEY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS FLEMING HELPHENSTINE by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON GOLDWING MOTH by CARL SANDBURG |