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phobia for dummies

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by	robwalkerpoet
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phobia for dummies.

automatonophobia
(fear of ventriloquists’ dummies)

they are not to be trusted.
their smiles are fixed.
little quadriplegic arms and legs

flop uselessly or folded like X
over non-ex
istent genitals.

their wooden hearts never feel
a beat,
yet their timing is perfect.

who’s a naughty boy?

And you don’t want to know
where that man
has his hand…

the only words that leave their mouths
thrown there
by someone else.

after work they retire to lonely hotel rooms,
lie listlessly on a bed,
staring vacantly at the ceiling.

or drown the sorrows of their empty lives in a gottle of geer.

Originally published as automatonophobia as Poem of the Month on the Friendly Street Poets website. Print-published in Rewired
(ed. Gaetano Aiello & Maggie Emmett)
Friendly Street Poets / Wakefield Press
ISBN 978 1 86254 790 2
AUS, 2008