The Bald Headed Doll

The Bald Headed Doll
by Hal Sirowitz

When I was five years old, Father said,
I ripped the hair out of my sister’s doll,
& used it as a wig. I took my violin
& a cup, & played waltzes up & down
the street. I thought people would throw me
pennies, but they threw garbage at me
from their windows, & one woman threw her old shoes.
My mother screamed at me when she got
home. And my sister tried to put the hair
back into the doll, one strand at a time,
& when she couldn’t, she also threw it at me.