Poodle by Alfred Fournier

That ragged toy I slept with—
its cottony innards
seeping out of split seams
like fluffy white blood
of a childhood cut short.

The dead starling I found
under mom’s darkened window,
a bird I cut open
not out of cruelty but curiosity,
shocked and disgusted
by its rancid scent,
pink and grey workings
of a factory gone still—
all its parts adding up
        to nothing.

And I wondered what magic
animates any of us
until one day it stops,
an unwound clock.
A toy thrown in the trash
while I was away at school.

Alfred Fournier is an entomologist, writer and community volunteer living in Phoenix, Arizona. His poems and creative nonfiction have appeared in Poppy Road Review, Lunch Ticket, New Flash Fiction Review, The New Verse News, International Times, Quibble, Delmarva Review, and elsewhere. His poetry collection, "A Summons on the Wind" (2023) is available from Kelsay Books and Amazon. alfredfournier.com.