***

A child’s toy, lost and forgotten in an empty wood.
Given life by the wind and rain.
By the rotting, unprotected by a coat of varnish, exposing the heart of wooden rings.
A ragged tail of string is becoming softened by the abuse.
A set of wire eyelashes is becoming rusty from the sky’s tears.
Joints are failing from lack of use.
A painted smile is washed quickly away.
Black button eyes losing their ebony luster.
The little wheels of her feet are slowly becoming unattached,
Wire braces succumbing to the weather.
Soon, like all lost, toys she’ll become a pile of bones.
Bits and pieces scattered by weather and birds.
The embodiment of a child’s love, once whole,
Will be lost to the corners of the world.
The essence still remaining, untouched by the time
That so weathered the body.