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The Wooden Toy

By Charles Simic b. 1938 Charles Simic

The brightly-painted horse

Had a boy’s face,

And four small wheels

Under his feet,

Plus a long string

To pull him by this way and that

Across the floor,

Should you care to.

A string in-waiting

That slipped away

In many wiles

From each and every try.

Knock and they’ll answer,

Mother told me.

So I climbed four flights of stairs

And went in unannounced.

And found a small wooden toy

For the taking

In the ensuing emptiness

And the fading daylight

That still gives me a shudder

As if I held the key to mysteries in my hand.

Where’s the Lost and Found Department,

And the quiet entry,

The undeveloped film

Of the few clear moments

Of our blurred lives?

Where’s the drop of blood

And the teeny nail

That pricked my finger

As I bent down to touch the toy

And caught its eye?

Evening light,

Make me a Sunday

Go-to meeting shadow

For my toy.

My dearest memories are

Steep stair-wells

In dusty buildings

On dead-end streets,

Where I talk to the walls

And closed doors

As if they understood me.

The wooden toy sitting pretty.

No, quieter than that.

Like the sound of eyebrows

Raised by a villain

In a silent movie.

Psst, someone said behind my back.

Charles Simic, “The Wooden Toy” from Poetry (October 1997). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

Source: Poetry (October 1997).

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This poem originally appeared in the October 1997 issue of Poetry magazine

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Biography

Charles Simic is widely recognized as one of the most visceral and unique poets writing today. Simic’s work has won numerous awards, among them the 1990 Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” the Griffin International Poetry Prize, and, simultaneously, the Wallace Stevens Award and appointment as U.S. Poet Laureate. He taught English and creative writing for over thirty years at the University of New Hampshire. . . .

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