No One’s Perfect: A Barbie Sonnet


Impressionistic times, the childhood years
When innocence derails reality,
Imagination soars through open ears
Impersonating life with fantasy.
Do you remember how we used to play
Upstairs behind closed doors exploring worlds
That grew from shopping malls to rolls in hay
With disproportioned dolls when we were girls?
And I believed true happiness was won
From body measurements like Miss Barbie;
A self-destructive path I ventured on, 
The truth a brick house I would never be.
Don’t bank your dreams on superficial lies
Big bosoms, swaggered hips hide cheesy thighs.





The Sisterhood of Us


Beneath the canopy of trees
we passed long summer days playing
hide-n-go-seek and slip-n-slide  
Tarzan and Jane with Barbie dolls-

R-rated versions as we grew
beneath the canopy of trees.
We drew stick figures in the dirt
played hangman with stray branches

camped in tents, scared ourselves silly
telling stories of headless ghosts
beneath the canopy of trees
a wisp of wind the spirit’s breath

the crunch of leaves our feet darting
inside—fast! as! we! could! go! SLAM
the door, but Dad would SHOO! us back
beneath the canopy of trees.





Artistic Escape 


A lemon drop, the sun appeared at noon
surrounded by white cotton candy clouds
sky blue, the upper half; in corner, moon
beneath a forest green, the trees a shroud.

She drew this picture time and time again,
escapement but a landscape brought to life
on knees with prayerful hands, she’d chant amen
amidst the deer and birds, no sign of strife.

Locked in a bedroom, painting helped her cope
with demons breaking in throughout the night,
his kneading fingers up and down, his grope
a tongue shoved in her mouth without a fight.

Two weeks until release and then she’s gone,
no longer would she be her stepdad’s pawn.