Hi everyone!! I just joined the community and just started writing again very recently. This is the first poem I’ve written since 2021 and I hope you like it :) my eyes flutter, unfocus, then derealize drift back behind sockets where they once did reside those cavernous hollows bored into the face of a doll given life by some cosmic mistake thaumaturgical construct clockwork pantomime chinese room formed of flesh algorithmic design her face, polished porcelain, just reflects what it’s shown. a puppet, cut from strings, still does as it’s told. always oblige — don’t dare to say no easier not knowing just how far they’ll go keep giving and giving, deny compensation love waits behind the next accommodation they take until nothing is left to remove no wants, no edges, no will to refuse with nothing distracting, glimpse up at her face the last intact surface still holding its glaze a glint in her eyes — not desire, not will just themselves, staring back, perfectly still practiced warmth flattened in porcelain sheen now forced to confront the person they’d been revulsion spreads slow, like blood on a page affection recedes, the usurpation of rage all kindness she offered now framed as deceit far easier to lie than admit what they’d seen abandoned, left empty, and stuck with the bill for passing as something both more and less real they leave her behind, seeking warmth, seeking life something less artificial, no mere homunculi