• Rays of lunar grace passed through lone window
    pane, flicking across one smiling Puppet
    with dark chestnut hair. Wistfully, a Doll
    lazed amid gray laces and curls; Mouse
    toes dappled beyond reach of a dark Cat,
    who mournfully stared out at distant stars.

    Under silvery sphere and icy stars,
    laid the aged little shop with etched window
    sign. With the toy master gone, the black Cat
    ruled over the boutique, since the Puppet
    sometimes forgot his strings; the Mouse
    his fragile form. Only the resigned Doll,

    Sweet, but young, knew of hierarchy. The Doll
    remained wearily at her post, with stars
    revolving around her hopeful mind, "Mouse!"
    she would cry, "What is beyond the window?"
    Unable to see, the mouse called: "Puppet!"
    "What is beyond the window?" The sleek Cat,

    Timeless and round, gazed on as a wise Cat
    would. Silence drowned, seconds dripped, and then: "Doll!"
    Came the whisper, "A girl!" exclaimed Puppet.
    Marble features gleamed, pale as gentlest stars
    and silverrod moonlight, though etched window
    pane. "Oh, a wonder," remarked the sly Mouse,

    His whiskers aquiver. "But what, Mouse,"
    "Is so wondrous?" Quaintly queried the Cat,
    godlike eyes wide, pacing to the window
    for a gander at the girl. "Why?" the Doll
    requested, "Are girls so grand as those stars?"
    Strings swung in the shop corner; the Puppet,

    Smiling despite the tough strings, sighed. "Puppet!"
    "Discovered the answer, yet?" asked the Mouse,
    shifting among moonless shadows; blue stars
    stippled the ageless fur of the black Cat,
    inciting jealousy within the Doll.
    Her eagerness could not reach the window.

    The smiling Puppet peered out the window,
    "Freedom," He replied, to both Doll and Mouse.
    Grinning, the Cat gazed once more at the stars.