Rosemary Nissen-Wade

Bye-Bye Barbie A fable of Leah’s dolls Betty with the home-made clothes glares across the room at Barbie who is shop-dressed, brand new, buxom and coolly smiling. Betty with the home-made hate sidles across the room on her rag bum sneakily, bit by bit, so Leah won’t see. She is dragging the toy soldier’s axe. Betty with the built-up hours of staring across the room has been inventing stories. She is calling herself Cinderella. She is calling herself Beauty and Orphan, and Princess – and right. Barbie, watching round-eyed, is mesmerised as Stepmother/Ogre/Troll lunges for her blood. © Rosemary Nissen-Wade 1990 First published Second Degree Tampering (Sybylla 1992) In Walking the Dogs (Pariah Press anthology) Also in Secret Leopard: New and selected poems 1974-2005, Alyscamps Press (Paris) 2005 Traveller My stepfather showed me oceans. Now these midnight moments call and flesh the ketch from childhood, dusted by moonlight, perfectly still at the