at those gradeschool sleepovers
your friend's mother always
refused to put away her favorite
doll, that enormous, peculiar-looking
kewpie. why did she leave
it on the guest bed
as if insisting that it sleep
between you and your friend?
after the scary movie,
it would be there waiting
for you, no matter how or where
you turned your head. it stared right at you
both alive and dead. whether waking up
from a bad dream or sleepless,
even in the pitch black night,
with closed blinds, the plastic eyes
intensely glistening with moonlight.