Happy Birthday Shelley

My Sister #1

My sister makes dolls.
She makes Black dolls.

It was once illegal
For Blacks
to have
Black dolls
she says.

There was once
the
Topsy-
turvy
doll

White
dolls with
long skirts. ..

long skirts
which hid
black dolls…

the child played with her black doll,
her doll that looked like her,
that was brown like her
that mirrored her…
But when a white person came ‘round,
the child turned the doll around.

Hiding the black doll,
but showing the
White doll.

And that’s how we survive…

by Turning
duplicity
On its
head…