Inside the Suits

by Mary Soon Lee
 
No telling what she's really like
from the outside.
Yes, she looks happy enough
with that plastic smile
painted permanently on her plastic head,
but the woman inside 
the Minnie Mouse costume
could be glaring at me
even as she lifts
her spotted skirt
to pirouette for the camera.
 
And maybe Mickey is just here
for the money,
and maybe Goofy hates kids,
and Pooh hates honey,
and Piglet hates Pooh.
     
But I will never believe
that the man bouncing tirelessly
in his Tigger outfit 
is anything less than perfect,
or that there is anything
less than love
under his fur
as he lays his stripy paw
on my shoulder,
stripping me down
to the six-year-old
I once was,
looking for a friend
to trust.

(First published in Main Street Rag)


112th Weekly Poetry Contest
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