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Baby Doll Russell Edson

A dying old man is presented with a toy coffin made of cardboard.

A cardboard coffin? sighs the old man.

It’s a funeral toy for little girls who like to play pretend death with their baby dolls.

But why cardboard? he sighs.

It’s cheaper than wood, and good enough for make-believe funerals.

But what will my friends think when they see me laid out like a baby doll in a coffin made of cardboard?

You have no friends.

Then what will the God think when I arrive in a coffin made of cardboard?

There is no God. . . .