Porcelain Dolls

(For Kaycee)

We are the fragile people,

porcelain dancers posed on a shelf

too high and narrow, poised there

and waiting to fall – smiling –

to smash ourselves to the floor.

Our painted smiles keep us there,

protected, safe, but they can’t stop

the touch of others who do not,

can not, see our hearts or know

the loneliness we feel, sitting here,

shelved and wishing it were not

so far to the floor below,

unprotected and afraid, vulnerable.