Clothespin Doll by Joanne Olivieri

 

Clothespin Doll

For Mom

It touched your heart

a wooden clamp

adorned in torn fabric,

colors of life,

Streaming tears of

sorrow, yet joy, 

she was your dolly.

You dressed her each day

with different colored fabric, two dotted eyes and

a painted smile, kept warm

in a sewing machine drawer, protected, loved.

Your clothespin baby

didn't have a name

though it didn't matter.

She was your dolly

and you loved her.

*****

Background:

A poem for my Mom. My Mom loved dolls but never had any as a child as my grandparents never had enough money to buy her one. So my Mom made a doll out of a clothespin and treated it as her baby and would tuck it in a drawer of their sewing machine each night to keep it safe, warm and protected.  I wrote this for her when the words and memory came to me in the middle of the night

I always bought Mom collectible  dolls for different occasions because of her childhood knowing how much she wanted and loved dolls.