
Lost
Lost my dolly, don’t know where.
She’s got no clothes and got no hair.
She’s somewhere out there lost and bare,
thinking that I do not care.
I’d go out looking, but don’t dare.
That babysitter over there
(My mother calls her our au pair)
came by foot and ship and air
from a country named Zaire
to sit here on her derriere
and watch me with her icy stare.
I open up our Frigidaire.
Could my dolly be in there?
I climb up on a bedroom chair
and go through Mommy’s underwear.
I do not think that she would care.
I find my brother’s whistle there,
hidden in that lacy lair,
and think it really isn’t fair.
It’s every mother’s cruel nightmare.
My dolly isn’t anywhere!

I had to stop the car to take this photo. I wish I knew the true story behind it. I can’t imagine any little girl throwing out her doll, and the lot was surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Someone must have tossed it in there. A mean boy? A jealous brother? Was it unwanted loot from a burglary? My mom and I once rode all the way back out to the dump from town to retrieve a doll’s head we’d thrown away. All the way home, we’d both been thinking about it, sitting there amidst coffee grounds and broken light bulbs. We had pulled into the garage when my mom turned to look at me and said, “Do you want to go back out and get that doll’s head?” I nodded. We did, and I have that head to this very day. If my mom had been with me, one or the other of us would have gotten through that barbed wire somehow. As it is, this image is the only part of the doll that I was able to rescue.
Great poem, doll picture, and previous post summary. What was it about barbed wire?
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I think she’s just playing ‘Hide and Seek’.
All will be well by evening.
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Ha. You always lighten the day, Lwbut.
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Thanks for that, Judy! 🙂
Smiles can make some dark days a little lighter.
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I just love this poem. I love dolls and I would have also gone back for the doll’s head.
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You did wonders with this image
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Thanks, Derrick. It was just so evocative that I think I could write a dozen more solutions and still not really capture the shock of the image.
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All alone in the wilderness — poor dolly, poor little girl. This is a great poem — thanks for not making it metaphorical!
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Ha. you keep me straight on that metaphorical business, Janet.
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Love your poem and the post script…was great! Great accompanying pic, as well! Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. 💙
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Thanks, Patty, I am. Have 6 people coming for late afternoon meal but most is already prepared and just needs to be warmed up.
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Great poem for the image, loved your story afterward as well! I love that someone else finds value in poems that rhyme as I do!
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Thanks, Kim. It keeps my mind exercised…
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Love this one Judy!
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