Mannequinns Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Little is the cost.
To dress windows.
The ones that display,
An array of diversity.
From day until night falls.

Just how much is the cost,
To get paid just to sit.
In positions as if...
The doing of it,
Is much more than the playing...
Musical chairs.
And when that music stops,
The employable mannequinns...
Are given trinkets and references.
Before being ushered out,
Of backstage doors.
Directed to find other places.
Places only God knows,
Where they will sit to dress windows.
Smiling from ear to ear.
To again disappear backstage.
Gone to not be recognized.
Replaced to go unnoticed.
By a parading crowd.
Accepting to believe...
All mannequins look alike.
In these days of rapid changes made.
Quicker than any attempt to make impressions.

"Wait a minute."

-Wait?
For what? -

"They have different colored ones! "

-Different colored...
What are you talking about? -

"We passed this same window,
The last time we came here to visit.
And I remember distinctly,
Those other mannequins smiling at me! "

-Oh?
Is that right?
What an imagination you've got.-

"I kid you not.
I thought they were real."

-Perhaps that is why they were replaced.
Since they were there,
Just to dress windows.
And they believed they had arrived,
To other positions to make their own decisions! -

"Huh? "

-Long ago,
They use to have elevator operators.
And waitresses,
Making good tips serving hotdogs and hamburgers,
On the basement floor.
Where people rummaged through bargains.
They too were replaced,
When they became too familiar with the customers-

"What on Earth are you talking about? "

-Life!
Before technology and animation deluded it! -

"None of that makes any sense to me."

-It will.
When and if you live long enough.-

"What does that have to do with anything? "

-Trust me.
The longer you live,
The more ridiculous what is heard to hear gets.
And everything to see to believe is crazy...
Is.
I use to stare.
Until I almost got hit by a car.-

"I am telling you,
Those colored mannequins smiled at me."

-And...
I'm telling you,
The older you get...
You will learn to keep stuff like that,
To yourself to know...
Few will believe what you have seen to witness.
Although I will admit,
That UFO I saw had long eyelashes and winked at me.-

"Whatever."

-Exactly! -