Raggedy Anne

Through woolen tresses of her limp red hair, will she conjure ghosts to pry the locks? — He wonders as he climbs the creaking stair to lay her in an attic storage box. Enchanted is the freckled face she wears these days so darkened by his daughter’s death. She is too daft and fey to grasp his cares— down the seven years of fostered breath. Her eyes are brilliant as the breaking dawn afire with the news of Eastertide, as if faith could bring back the dead and gone, or put a rib back into Adam’s side. May she see endless mercy grant a pardon to her elder sister struck at play. And may she see pure light in Eden’s garden though he himself sees only dark through grey.