Emerald Dolls

Creature of the night
lights a cigarette,
"Do not forsake me,"
she whispers to glass
reflecting an emerald self.

"This is what I've become!
While night slipped in the valley
light on either peak
I slipped too
while attempting to cross to the other side.

Dolls, so pretty with porcelain skin
and sea blue eyes,
I put on lipstick and marched in line.
Served booze for dinner
to weary souls
a day's labor done,
night labor just begun.

'It'll rob your soul,'
raven hair warned.
The night or the life?
I did not know which she meant.

Dolls play
customers pay.

No it's not prostitution
not even stripping
but simply serving
a cocktail straight-up
rocks
shot
while humans sleep
and stars fall from the sky.

Oh it's the funnest sort of life
to simply be a doll
dolls play too
once boozers are turned out.

To kiss a pole
We jump so high
hopscotch in the sky
the bar is all ours."

Abed with the rising sun
Awake with the rising moon
soon life becomes darker
as time slips away.

One doll chasing the sun
rises above
never sleeping
two lives meet.
Servant of the day
King at night
he is worshipped
as others fade away.

The night is a time
suitable for some
but most creatures
eventually need sun.

Skin turns emerald
while searching for light
oh emerald
emerald
the color of night.

Emerald
emerald
the creature
comes out of a trance
tap tap tap
she begins to dance.

For she notices light
still on the peak
and swears she'll get back up
no matter how steep.

"I don't know how," she says,
"But I'll find a way."
and suddenly glancing at her hand
indeed finds hope
in a product of the day,
for there something bright
is shining shining

a cigarette flame.

She takes one last drag.

"Light has so many forms,"
She declares
"So it's not about how
but to scale this mountain
I simply begin with now."

The creature begins to climb
emerald skin fades away
it no longer matters who she is
or what she is
as long as she found day.

Copyright © 2009 Chaya Silberstein