This Toy Has Seen Better Days

This toy has seen better days.

Back then it was cared for, with gentle hands that combed its hair and dressed it in nice, neat clothes.

It went places, hosted tea parties, had great potential in any career and pretended to make grown up decisions with a frame so small.

It was a doll that was loved by so many and now abandoned all the same.

This toy has seen better days.

Its heart strings are broken. This marionette dances no more to the tune of others.

It has no use now that it has been used.

It’s trapped in an attic with no light, no space, no future. With no-one to play with there are no bruises or new scars that need healing.

Just ample time being on its own, for thinking, for recalling.

This toy has seen better days.

It survives with the sequelae of knowledge.

Promises of eternal friendship and belonging are replaced by the desolate landscape of the truth.

This toy was designed to endure all kinds of games, but something inside has shifted; something's gone. Was it hope? Was it love? Or was it simply purpose, the reason for being a toy?

This toy has seen better days.

This toy is now unwanted and has nowhere else to go.

Not a soul in the world remembers its name or cares if it is still here.

But this toy can have a new name. It possesses the power to exist beyond human memory.

Is a toy still a toy when it no longer needs to entertain?