San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly

LORI WALL-HOLLOWAY

Make Believe

Another generation takes

on role of Mistress Puppeteer

and brings to life a world

once alive 25 years before

She chooses small brown

plastic bears strewn over

table and sets them inside

toy schoolhouse to pretend

“Little Bear, let me go

on the swing first,” calls

out a bear before another

cries from the seesaw,

“Play with me.”

Mistress Puppeteer commands

bear students to dance until -

Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle

A small bell positioned

in building’s tower

marks end of recess

and bears march inside

where lessons begin