By Daniel Shapiro
His world-class dummies
Knucklehead Smiff
and Jerry Mahoney
fading, conversation
one-sided, the man
behind the voice
of Tigger needs
to move his lips,
to ax the charade,
to create a doll
that breathes.
In his workroom,
he crosses plastic
with motor and pump.
He flexes jaws brazenly,
spilling his guts
to the misshapen head,
inventing a perfect
mechanism to thump
in rhythm. No Geppetto,
he refuses to succumb
to dreams of real, banishes
the gadget backstage.
When a heart attack
fells a fan in Row 3,
Knucklehead continues
to drone. Unfazed,
the hideous head stirs
in its box, frees itself,
plucks out googly eyes
so ventricles and atria
may grow from sockets.
Clutching at Straws 