Doll's Lesson
By James Cervantes

The doll's impassive face
looks beyond me
with starburst eyes
as I trace its plastic
baby-body. I accept
the lack of breasts,
the cold smoothness,
the slick and shiny
tummy ending abruptly
where eyehooks join
and legs begin, a hard
mystery at the joining
where I jump from play
to bible school, a story
of how God made man
and woman from clay. Soft
and warm from kneading,
a doll keeps its indentations
while I mold it one more time,
imperfect but with answers.