Little Girl Alone with Doll

The doll was the first to inflict upon us that tremendous silence(larger than life) which later kept breathing on us out of space, whenever we came to the limits of existence.-Rilke

No matter what, she gives her that same smile
But what she's smiling at she deosn't say.
She knows the words a six-year-old would know,
And speaks when spoken to, in a changed voice.
"I love you, Janey. Say it: I love you."
And so she does. Still, there is that smile.
Then she's crushed against a streaming face.
"Just tell me everything will be all right."

But it won't be, and that won't matter either,
Not to that smile, past caring and past hope.
The girl has made a place for her; she waits.
Calm, breath held, all done with lying now,
She sits there ready, watching for the one
Who never speaks, whom still we're waiting for.

-by John Burt
from Work Without Hope, page 87