The Ventriloquist

He had been so lonely.

Days passed without the need to speak.

He understood at last

why God had made a man of the very dust.

It was a wooden woman

who came then into his arms.

He turned her face toward his own

and bid her speak.

She wasn’t made precisely in his image

but she had charm.

Her eyes were skillfully painted

and she was sanded very smooth.

She could be dull, though,

and nothing she said ever surprised him.

Still, people smiled at them together.

He was definitely noticed.