The Barbie Graveyard.(Poem)

 
The Barbie Graveyard 
 
   Schoolteachers, shop assistants, ballerinas, 
   unhorsed equestriennes and office cleaners, 
   a gypsy, a mermaid, an African queen, 
   brides in their wedding dresses, all have been 
   flung down into what appears a mass grave, 
   naked, dismembered, impossible to save. 
   What manner of tragic incident, 
   what rail disaster or motor accident 
   pogrom or holocaust or serial 
   killer, has dispersed all this material, 
   severed arms and legs, a limbless torso, 
   disembodied heads, dishevelled the more so 
   for the lack of hands to comb the Medusalike 
   nylon tangles, or to produce a 
   garment to cover up their flesh? The slaughter 
   is only, in fact, the way a daughter 
   leaves her bedroom, which I have come to regard 
   as earning the title The Barbie Graveyard. 
   This is no ...