China Wall (for China Doll)

The doll-face
Cracked like
Water-less soil
The tears were glass beads,
Faked sadness
For the masses
Who could be put off
By the artist’s intent
To let the forgotten –
The least of you
And yours –
experience
Pain and sadness

To be honest,
I’m a little put off
By the idea
Of staging emotions
For the benefit
Of my experiencing
What’s left of my interior life,
Vicariously.

I look with special interest
At the photographs
Of velvet boxes
And silk hangers
Tiny clothes and special playthings
For the privileged
Children of loving parents
In the garden of the kinder.
What the pictures convey
To me is the intimacy of childhood
As expressed in the private world of play
Tactile sensations forming
Memories
Of velvet and satin. silk
And wood
Nick-knacks and notions
Of bounteous, but close-quarter
Living
In the dark closets
Of parents and pardons.


-jim hill (4-09-02)