MY VOODOO DOLL

(Please click on the photo for a full view)She was given to me by a friend over twenty years ago.  She’s intended to be a personal health-aid.  When something hurts, you stick a pin in that part of her medically-encyclopedic body and abracadabra!!  It’s gone!She came equipped with ten pins.  At the time, I wondered how on earth I could ever use that many.  “Really?”  I thought.  “What was my friend thinking?  Only a hypochondriac could come up with that many aches and pains.”Fast forward twenty years.  The poor little thing has become a veritable pincushion.Through the years, she’s been forced to undergo a few additions and corrections.  She’s been altered to specifications, if you will.  Her pains; my pins.  Too many of both.Her edges are now frayed, just like mine.  Her muscles have gone saggy, like mine.  Her joints ache, like mine.  Even her stuffing's a bit lumpy,  just like mine.She’s my new best friend.  I think she likes me, too.  We commiserate and heal each other.After all, friends stick together.