Paper Dolls

[ritwiksadhu33]

The rhyming scheme here sounded off to me in places, although I don't know if that's intended. The idea starts of nice enough but seems to falter into cynical clichés in the 2 paras in between without adding much. It is not that using common truisms in poems is a cardinal sin (although it often doesn't work in my experience) but there should be something new or interesting added to it.

Paper dolls,
cut to please.
In perfect rows,
sharply creased. So far so good

Ruin marks the passage of time.
All good things fray,
The end never lies. Two sentences that mean the same thing,
Followed by another truism that seems only loosely related and doesn't add up for me.
Paper dolls fall into decay.
This paragraph could have been replaced by the last sentence without much change in the message

Like a scythe,
the clocks hands reave,
Paper doll heads tumble.
Death;
offers reprieve,
to infinities slow shuffle. Tumble and shuffle... don't really rhyme.

Paper dolls stare,
Cut out eyes that never blink. First line has too many syllables, 2nd line too many. Not sure if by intention.
Paper dolls do not care.
Paper dolls do not think.
Nice enough ending.

Overall, this poem doesn't do enough: Paper dolls/puppets/dolls in general as metaphors have been used pretty widely in prose and poetry both: just stating worn out sayings in the context of that theme is hard to appreciate for me. I liked the way it began, though.