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| MERLIE M. ALUNAN |
| Bringing the Doll |
| THE AUTHOR HOLDS THE COPYRIGHT TO THIS POEM. THIS IS POSTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE TRANSLATOR. |
| THIS IS PART OF THE LITERATURA READING SERIES | CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO LITERATURA |
| Two dolls in rags and tatters,
one missing an arm and a leg, the other blind in one eye— I grabbed them from her arms, “No,” I said, “they cannot come.” Each tight luggage I had packed only for the barest need: No room for sentiment or memory to clutter loose ends my stern resolve. I reasoned, even a child must learn she can’t take what must be left behind. And so the boat turned seaward, a smart wind blowing dry the stealthy tears I could not wipe. Then I saw—rags, tatters and all— there among the neat trim packs, the dolls I ruled to leave behind. Her silence should have warned me she knew her burdens as I knew mine: her clean white years unlived and mine paid. She battened on a truth she knew I too must own: When what’s at stake is loyalty or love, hers are the true rights. Her own faiths she must keep, not I. |