You’re not on stage with your rictus grin
or safe in your box and the darkness within,
and no familiar hand is shoved into your head.
With an audience like this you’re better off dead –
but you’re not even alive, you dummy,
and today’s woodwork class doesn’t think you’re funny.
With their chisels, hammers and sharp-toothed saws,
eager to find out what you’ve got in your drawers,
their lips aren’t moving so who’s that screaming?
Kim M. Russell, 8th April 2019

My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Poems in April Day 8: Riddikulus!
Rommy’s challenge is to revisit our childhood fears – with a twist. She wants us to write new poems about situations that would scare whoever it was we were sacred of.
Her example: if you were scared of clowns, imagine one being terrified when they ended up at an insurance seminar instead of one of their usual haunts.
Mmm this is deep…the dummy voices in my head are running for shelter..lovely poem
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I’m glad you like it!
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Just desserts, my sister (who freaks out at clowns and ventriloquist dummies) would say.
Well done!
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Thanks Ron!
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I friggen love it! It gives me the most delightful chills.
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Mwah ha ha ha!
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Ooh! Those dummies are scary though!
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Oh yes!
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Those poor dummies, I feel a little sorry for them; on the other hand,what do you suppose they said?
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I don’t know if I can feel sorry for a dummy. I find them too scary. It’s probably not what it said but the way it said it!
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So imaginative and creative Kim- well done!
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Thanks Linda!
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This made me giggle, girl. 🙂
But then at the end, with mention of all those tools, it reminded me of movies like Hostel, where young girls and guys are abducted, strapped down, and then tortured/cut up and such.
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Horror makes me giggle anyway – it’s a fear mechanism. 😱
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Ohh this is wonderfully eerie, Kim! ❤
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I chose the least scary image and that’s terrifying!
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Clowns frighten me but not dummies. Dummies without that hand are silent…clowns, well. Clowns are clowns.
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They all scare me!
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Wow, scary indeed for the poor dummy. A wonderful write.
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Thanks Rosemary.
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Poor dummy…It must be hell to be carved into being.
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I can’t drum up sympathy for dolls or dummies, give me a sock puppet or teddy bear any day!
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I think that the dummy has an evil spirit living inside. Looks deceive.
..
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Have you seen the film Magic with Anthony Hopkins?
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