String me up till my skin is taut
Move my limbs like paper things
A charade in a child's parade
The Library's afternoon puppet show
All the children are welcome to play
Bodies bigger than they used to be
Paying bills and buying groceries
Mechanical workings guide my days
Strings pulling sinews every week
But I never forget
This is puppet theatre
And I'm in a play
My child moves me
In the streets and in the bureaucracy
Taking joy in her puppet
That's all grown up
She still sees this as play
And she is not wrong
Sticks and strings with frilly things
Adults are puppets
The child guides as is only right
Do not deny yourself the pleasure
Of the child inside
Children remember what we lost in the Library's mytic shelves and keeps
And remind us every time we forget we're in a play on theatre day.