DDCPoetry

Poem found here:   "Buddhist Barbie" by Denise Duhamel So everything depends on how to interpret the last two lines of the poem.  I've been going back and forth on how I feel about it. However, let's start in the beginning.  The poem starts out with an informational tone:          In the 5th century B.C.      an Indian philosopher      Gautama teaches 'All is emptiness'      and 'There is no self' This is the conceit of the poem in which the Barbie figure responds to.  I think the build up here is the response and the informational tone is more of the "straight man" premise to the "humorous response.  Note how this section is a quatrain and how the next part (still within the same stanza) is a quatrain as well:      In the 20th century A.D.      Barbie agrees, but wonders how a man      with such a belly could pose,      smiling, and ...