Frozen Charlottes, A Sequence

Nicole Cooley

Frozen Charlottes, A Sequence is a work that investigates the rules that govern girls’ bodies and mother/daughter relationships. Frozen Charlottes are tiny dolls, with a strange history, as they were used as insulation in the factories in which they were invented. The doll bodies are nearly always naked, unjointed, with painted hair and faces, and sold by the lot. The dolls and the stories that circulate around them, all about female bodies, desire and shame, are at the center of this cycle of poems.

“Let’s talk about who hid the dolls in ditches, in dry wall,
in rock foundations. Who shoved their bodies hard

inside a wall to keep a factory warm in winter. Who
smashed the dolls together then sealed the wall with plaster?

Kidnapped girls–

Who will find them?

Like survivors after a crash, after a blast,
these girls are always post-earthquake, bodies covered in fine white ash.”

NICOLE COOLEY grew up in New Orleans and now lives outside of New York City. She has published five books, most recently Breach and Milk Dress, both in 2010. She is the director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College-City University of New York, where she is a professor of English.