DOLL on the STAIRS by Jennifer Copley

Doll on the Stairs

She arrived one night, late.
The landing window was open
as if she’d blown in with the blossom.
She settled herself on the seventh stair.

I picked her up but she stiffened the way a baby does.
I made to smooth her hair, re-tie her sash
but a look stopped me dead.
We went to bed leaving her staring into the hall.

Next morning the post was frozen to the mat,
milk smashed on the step.
We crept about our little businesses,
her eyes following, sparking like swords.

I take advice, am told she’s German—
Heubach Koppelsdors—that her head 
and neck are bisque, her body composition.
I advertise but no one wants to buy.

Today her right hand is raised like a greeting,
her rosebud lips offer a slight smile;
sweet enough if you don’t want to know what she’s thinking, 
what she plans to do with us now she’s here.

—Jennifer Copley

Jennifer Copley is the author of four full collections of poetry: Unsafe Monuments (Arrowhead 2006); Beans in Snow (Smokestack 2009); Sisters (Smokestack 2013); and What Happens to Girls (Pindrop Press, 2020). Of her several pamphlets, the latest, Being Haunted, won the Cinnamon Pamphlet Prize in 2018. She has also won prizes in a number of major competitions, including 1st prize in the Faber/Ottakar, 2nd prize in the Cardiff Academi, 3rd prize in the Bridport. Her work has appeared in The Rialto, The North, PN Review, the Independent on Sunday, the Forward Prize Anthology and GCSE Poetry Unseen revision papers.

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