Poetry....
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Barbie Doll
This girlchild was born us usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in a magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs.
She was healthy, test intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.
She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on heart,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and legs
and offered them up.
In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending.
---- Marge Piercy (1936- )
What Lips My Lips Have Kissed
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stand the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent that before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that sings in me no more.
--Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)
