Effi you are strong
Held together at points with straw
But string, and twine
Are everywhere they belong so
Effi you are strong

Effi, who I wipe a baby spider from her eye
Swaying, as I have her in her nest in my arms
Preening, playful, so pale and yet warm
Like yet has her form not ready been burned

Like yet has her form not ready been blurred-
Been turned over and over in my hands, and
The hands of some other passing estranged
Who make it their hobby to hold dolls in their hands, and
In the eyes of even those who would like me to “Stand
Back!” And who have many opinions on how you are arranged

Effi you are rotting
Left apart at points with straw
For fun. With time
Parts of you may be lost and gone, for
Effi you are rotting

Effi, who lays crumpled with termites in her dress
Making not a sound as I lovingly impressed
Teeming, infested, so green and yet cold
Like bathing in the attic sun, my raggy little urn

Like staying pretty, still, angled and borne,
Never thou forget from deepest-my-strands
Hair, sweat, longing and wrath to spare you an age
Kept from blood, for mandibles can course through your trunk
You are blessed as more tree than that of a Man
Which says nothing of your more feminine form

Effi you are broken
Simply open to the cold
For sun is spun,
Peaking around attic shafts in your home
Effi you are alone

Effi who they would all stone into the bitter ground
Making ne’er a thought for you as only I protest
For your baggy face I cannot live to see it harmed
You know I did not make the eyes of all the laughing rest

Effi, Effi, Effi, little things like you get lynched
Effi- and it’s them who make you little, it’s not us
It’s not them who lovingly drew you up to always blush
Nor the one who keeps you at great risk to his health
For the one who has you in your nest in my arms,
Has a needle- not some rope to tie you by the neck

Effi you are sunken,
Surely aching in the cold
Or warmth as well
Is scared of what is simply our love-
Effi you are hiding

Do you intend to dig into or out of the dirt?
To escape me, or escape those who see you a sport
And bring up their arms- And one shrieks and blurts
Like “May only monsters own such grotesque sort!”

Like what do you know of the world and of pain
And you’d go out there with no muscles to stand
And I know you- I know you’d get too warm, and
What plan could you make that does not involve us?
They make a special place, in fact, for little girls, like thus:
They call it Hell, and little bugs and string do burn so much

Effi you are safe
Held away from the face with disgust
For skin will crawl
From somewhere clutched inside your breast
Effi you are safe

Effi, who I stitched to life with bug legs, with ******
Who’s little souls will try to serve you, or your soul they’ll wrest
Beaming at the people who hold you from their face
Like soldiers- like claim many who drop you and your lace

I know in my heart- and I know my heart so well,
As I modeled your heart after all the love I form-
That I did not just make you, but I was made in turn
To make you and to keep you near my heart and in my arms
To store you and your comfort of rotting, writhing hugs
Far away from any evil constructs on this earthly dwell

Effi you are strong
Held forever with my straw
And string, and twine
Do everything I allow so
Effi you are strong