The Doll

It’s called a High Care Facility.

A place where people go

when stroke or heart or Alzheimer’s

has stolen life’s libido.

Those ladies with cognition woes

can sometimes fret a bit.

They worry about their families

and think they have young kids.

In the homes for elderly ladies

some dwell in younger times.

And some OTs think maybe

a doll would be just fine

to keep them feeling useful.

And as something about to chatter

a child with big blue eyes might

help them settle better.

The therapist requested funds.

Four hundred dollars clear.

She said that some would benefit

from having a dolly near.

The boss thought it excessive

but as she couldn’t see a way

to veto transfer of the cash,

the young girl had her say.

Some staff, they were against it.

They thought it condescending.

Most even went so far as to

complain it was demeaning.

But the therapist was of the new school

and determined these things work.

And so without another word

the blue-eyed babe was bought.

The manager immediately

could see something was wrong.

She sat the doll, she laid the doll

but its big eyes watched her own.

“Its eyes don’t close,” she told the girl

who’d taken this giant leap.

“How will those ladies settle

when they can’t get the baby to sleep?”

Whoever they would give it to -

Peggy, Louise, Ingrid -

the doll just lay and stared at them

no matter what they did.

It was quite off-putting for the dears

as the manager had known.

The infant would not slumber.

Its eyes were always open.

They offered it to Mary Jane.

She pulled out most its hair.

They took it round to Nancy Lee

who really didn’t care.

Granny Sneet was terrified

and wouldn’t look its way.

And the manager knew too well

those eyes had had their say.

Not one lady wanted it.

They left it where it lay

in the foyer of the nursing home

and it stayed there day by day.

Until the time a visitor

into the crib did peep.

“Oh what a lovely little one,”

she said to Granny Sneet.

Granny shrugged her frail thin bones

and muttered under breath.

What she said God only knows.

One can only guess.

She wrung her hands around and round

and sniffed her pointed nose.

“I don’t know why they keep it there.

It is quite dead you know.”