Fairy Tale

Overhead in careful formation
Flew three Woolworth’s plaster ducks,
Squawking an ode
To commercialised nature.

Flower petals trickled down the wooden face
Of a Chinese doll,
Standing forgotten on a market stall,
Reciting the gospel according to Mao.

A child’s truck constructed of tin
Ran over a woollen teddy bear,
Its glass eyes big with pain,
Its ears flapping unhearingly,

Missing out on the ducks and the doll.