PUPA
No, the dolls whisper.
Patched monologues. Skip rope chants. Playing tag. Playing marbles. I came here one year ago. Bombed stone houses. Village of refugees.
I only think about the dolls. I made one looking like my mother. Slipping under my skin. In the mirror I see her: she is there, in my body. Writing on the blackboard. White chalk. Oak desks. Chairs. Teacher touching her above the white ribbed knee sock.
Even when I thought I was free of her. These lands she couldn’t understand. Moosgraben creek flowing through Pirka Wood. Nunnery cemetery. Hooded with a caul. No, the dolls whisper.
scent of wild milkweed
blue butterfly enclosing
the moon mountain
Author’s Bio
Ilona Martonfi’s latest collection is The Snow Kimono (Inanna Publications, 2015). Forthcoming are Salt Bride (Inanna Publications, 2019) and The Tempest (Inanna Publications, 2020). She is Artistic Director of The Yellow Door and Visual Arts Centre Reading Series, as well as of the Argo Bookstore Readings. She is the recipient of the QWF 2010 Community Award.