The Elegant Doll Who Looked Like The Singer Lily Pons

[to my Grandparents with love forever...]

a doll in pink tissue in a pale blue box
is staring up at me through a birthday haze
with a porcelain face

and eyes of green
in a gown a gown with an ivory sheen
an overlay of pink rosebuds

rhinestoned leaves in relief
a doll a doll in pink tissue
has come to call

here on the dining table though I am small
I dust every Saturday with lemon pledge
obliterating all other presents heaped and opened first

and I could brust with happiness
and my gaze is a gaze that is fixed
on the doll the doll in the ivory gown

with its delicate overlay of pink velvet rosebuds
tiny embroidered rosebuds
delicate pearl drop earings

and a picture hat

and I want to be worthy
maybe even a saint
to honor the doll

the doll in pink tissue
in the pale blue box
and those who loved me

when I was in the second grade
to give me such a fairy doll, a shining one
her hair the colour of a copper sun.

mary angela douglas 25 april 2017