TIN SOLDIER SUMMARY IN SUMMER

he only knows one way to stand:
the tin soldier way
since that's the way he came
in the box at Christmas
with all the others.
then one day
a fairy fusillade dispatched one leg
or part of it I guess, I read
but still he stayed more

valiant than the rest
propped up in the play
forever at attention.
stalwart in the day
and when the moonlight
through the room shone
on the posture he assumed at home
would always be his
how could it be otherwise
one night with the wind while scouting from the ledge of let's pretend too near the edge

he

plummeted without a sound to

sail in a paper boat far from the lost and found
he floated all alone through drainpipes in the town

with roofs of scarlet, sugar snowed;

under it all he kept his visage fixed
though no one else could know that it was his
till one day from the magic fish in the self same house
the cook drew him out bye bye drain spouts
refurbished for a little space
to see the steadfast rose of her face
the ballerina too
who waited through and through
till her heart of tinsel and gauze
melted beyond all effect and cause
into a heart of lead
that's what the story said.

mary angela douglas 12 june 2020;24 june 2022