Poet’s Corner – Child’s Play

By Jessica G. de Koninck

I want a doll
who can walk down stairs
when her knee gives way,
one not uncomfortable with
forgetting the names 
of everyone she knows
and of birds and of flowers,
who tells stories about her childhood, then stops mid-sentence, 
who continuously misplaces her reading glasses.

I want a doll who has given up driving, whose husband is dead,
who has lost her appetite. 
I want a doll to teach me 
not to be afraid, what happens next.

Top photo: Bigstock