The Teddy Bear

 Is it lonely? Is it scared? 

 

Sitting on the shelf like a seer.

 

 He, my ever unhugged dear.

 

 

 

With matted fur he waits there, 

 

His innards full of dust. 

 

Glaring with beady eyes, 

 

And his frayed sopping ears. 

 

 “Don’t ever be naughty,” said Daddy.

 

 He always watches you : that teddy.

 

 So, I stayed awake, in the dark, 

 

Listening to mother’s muffled tears. 

 

 Moldy he smells, since that day, 

 

I stood upon a chair, and tried 

 

To drown him in a bucket. 

 He, my red-bowed despair. 

 

 

Now new children see him

 

With the same horror, the same allure.

 

 His grime filling their dreams. 

 

That brown and nailless-fear. 

 

Is it lonely? Is it scared? 

 

This time there is no chair,

 

 And the bucket is now a river. 

Author's Note

The rhyme is supposed to be intentionally irregular.