Fine China

[axasos]

Fine China

Fine China is my Love;
fragile, delicate,sensually serviceable. I would remove either delicate or fragile (redundancy)
Although I worship her
I do not put her on a pedestal.
I keep her locked in a cabinet,
that is where she needs to be. you can shorten this to where she needs to be.
Letting her out on special occasions
so my guest might enjoy her.
They each treat her according; you state "each," so I am assuming there is more than one guest?
to their personalities and
their own predilections:
some gentle, some rough.
She acquiesces to each demand.
After all have had their use of her to match the submissive tone of the last line, I would reword this to perhaps make her seem like a disposable object
we adjourn to another room,
leaving her naked, alone and soiled.
Later, they depart, but no goodbyes,
or a thank you for her
flawless performance. I think you can put "flawless performance" in the previous line rather than breaking it.
Afterwards when we are alone
I draw her bath of soapy hot water.
Stroking her, then plunging her in "plunging her beyond the water's surface"
her edge breaking the water’s surface. 
Baptized, I lift her out reborn again;
her sins washed away, a virgin once more. again.
I dry her carefully, gently, lovingly,
feeling the raised design on her surface,
like goosebumps on enervated skin.
Then, stacked neat all in its place, "stacking her neatly in place"
I once again lock the cabinet door
until the next time.


©2005, revised 2021

Something about this poem hits especially close to home, not as someone who's experienced physical trauma or abuse but as someone who feels like the "back-up" friend or someone who is taken advantage of, momentarily treated kindly only so others can get something from me. The juxtaposition between the narrator's supposed "love" and "gentleness" for the china doll and the way he actually treats her, as a disposable object for social flaunting, is consistent throughout the piece. However, the last ten lines or so seem a little ambivalent in tone - the narrator seems to violently force the doll under the water to wash her, then "carefully, gently, lovingly" stroke her. I suggest changing the diction of the line "plunging her in... the water's surface."