VIVID
[in memory of my grandmother, Lucy White Young ]
these peripheral fairy stories
I still wind
on a reel of gold
even if the pictures are flickering
in this Celluloid mirror
and the glass slipper slips to the stones
and shatters
before it can be found.
I still preserve like
muscadine jam the
soul's gilt gingerbread;
it's peppermint and gemstone gumdrop
crenellations;
all sugar plum, pastel expectations;
a panoramic view at Easter
of violet-trimmed hats
against a primrose sky;
the key to the heart's most
singular libretto, a
treble clef of stars:
music unfolding like this fugue of far dimensions.
my mother's singing in a green plaid dress:
butter and sugar on enchanted bread,
the faraway Land of Green Ginger,
tomato soup, grilled cheese
fruit cocktail.
ever-closer I gather my anamalies,
secured for a glittering denouement:
twelve fairies with their gifts,
a summer piano's
"Rustle of Spring",
a bird's chilled singing in the holy rain
the spinning wheel unspun
the last sleeve sewn.
the princess clouding capture
with a milky quartz
(tucked into a secret pocket
before the school bell);
treading the springtide scriptures of a dream
coping with wrapped enigmas,
her tears of pearl recondite-
like everything else.
prayers with no transliteration, heard
even from such dim towers.
all you know.
mysteriously without the wind
the green tree tops begin to bend;
taken up at the hem
the cherry-glazed day arrives:
the vivid rose ensoleil in the outer snows.
the vivid rose ensoleil in the outer snows.
mary angela douglas 18 may 2009
*ensoleil: with the sun's rays around it as in heraldic pictures. (Fr.)
