We’re Giving Away A “Barbie”

Last week, we announced a “We’re Giving Away Barbies” contest — leave a comment and a name would be selected at random to receive a copy of Marcus Goodyear’s Barbies at Communion: and other poems.

We had 21 comments. I put slips of paper numbered 1 through 21 in a bag, and pulled out #10. And that’s Erin Kilmer at Together for Good.

Congratulations, Erin — and a “Barbies” will soon be on its way.

Also, we promised to feature one entry both here and at HighCallingBlogs. As Fate (or the Barbies?) would have it, Erin’s poem was chosen for feature before her name was pulled from the hat. Erin, this day is all yours. 🙂

Construction Zone

She came home today
from the doctor’s office
with a Barbie sticker on her
fat baby belly.

It took me by surprise–
after these years of boys I have
grown accustomed to
dump trucks and race cars.

And all I could think
is how different this
whole girl thing is–
what with the dolls and the

tutus and the pink pink pink
on everything. No one calls
a little boy “Daddy’s little bumblebee”
or “sweet baby butterfly.”

And I don’t even want to imagine
the differences there will be someday–
when she has entered and then left
the Barbie stage.

But today I’m simply left with the thought,
as I pull the sticker off her onesie,
that I’d be more comfortable with Barbie
if she were driving a dump truck.