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User Rating: |
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10.0
/10
(2
votes)
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Where it came from
is a mystery
like the virgin birth.
A teacher unlocks
a cabinet one day
and brings it out,
a special thing
to be carefully
locked away again
when the play period ends.
The children delight
every time they see it.
They know it's a rare privilege
that must be savored.
They regard it
as grown-ups do
a fine wine
They begin to clamor for it daily.
After awhile it starts
to appear more often.
One day at clean-up time,
eluding the teacher's eye,
it gets dumped in a crate
with the general run of toys.
Thereafter it's no longer
kept under lock and key —
as though once out a whole night,
it's lost its pedigree.
The toy seems to thrive, though,
seemingly tired of elitism,
longing to know the common life.
But soon the children
start to take it for granted.
They grow tired
of its giving them
the same, predictable essence
day after day.
They want to extract from their toy
some new thrill.
They want a bicycle that can have a sweet taste,
They want a ball they can climb through.
They do everything they can
to expand its use —
throwing it, jumping on it,
bending it unnaturally.
A crash dummy at a test site
is not more endangered.
'Unbreakable' parts begin to snap.
Handles wear off.
Finally, the toy is simply
an object of abuse,
left outside every night
in cold and rain.
Even the teachers ignore it,
as if they're just
waiting for it to die.
One day a teacher walking past it
stops, realizes that it's become
more of a danger than a joy,
lifts it over to the other
side of the fence,
where it can await
a trip to the dumpster,
the mercy killing complete.
Max Reif
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Comments about this poem (The Life-Cycle of a Toy
by
Max Reif
) |
|
Click here to write your
comments about this poem (The Life-Cycle of a Toy by
Max Reif
)
 |
Francesca Johnson
(2/15/2007 5:41:00 AM) |
Just a reminder, Max, that I thought this was a brilliant poem, as I said in my previous comment. By the way, this site was unobtainable for a lot of us and we have only just been able to get back onto it. Love, Fran xxx
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Allan James Saywell
(2/14/2007 5:40:00 PM) |
DEAR MAX ACCORDING TO THE STATS THERE ARE ONLY TWO PEOPLE ON LINE SO THAT IS WHY YOU ARENT' GETTING ANY RESPONSE TO YOUR POEM
AJS
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Max Reif
(2/14/2007 8:52:00 AM) |
a slightly different version of this poem got 4 '10' votes last night, and these two comments:
Francesca Johnson (2/14/2007 5: 41: 00 AM)
Unless it's a Stieff teddy bear, ofcourse. Joking aside, this poem could be about life in general, too. Just look at the way some of our old folk end up - in nursing homes, forgotten and unloved. A poem which has many analogies.....an interesting read here, Max.
Love, Fran xx
Alison Smith (2/13/2007 11: 14: 00 PM)
The toys gradual fall from the top is similar to that of love... at first we see them occassionally then more often then way too often until we dont see them at all and finally they get dropped for another toy....
Alison
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3
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