Thursday, May 26, 2011

To Be Sung In White Tulle, Silver-Sequined

the king mislaid his
blueprint for the stars
and cries at night

into his golden shadow

lost courtiers kneel
before the showcase cakes

little children may not eat

no matter how long they say
they are sorry

that the toeshoe thistledown moon

is slipping farther everyday
down the rimed rose campion

windows of the castle.

but they will keep their
diamond latchkeys safe

at this rhapsodic distance from the sun-

from the sparklers' fizzy dreaming at the end-
from that last summer-

and bless - and bless-

eternal lily snows on the fleeting ground


mary angela douglas 25 may 2011

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Miniatures(You Must Live Within Your Means)

you must live within your means
they said to the artist who was breaking off
little pieces from the sun

when he ran out of cadmium yellow:

"I don't know what you mean," he sighed
and dreamed

that he was eating clouds

while they remained perturbed...

[that he was...]

out in the fields reciting,

biting off the wind so late in the day;
and in the green midnights

(fresh out of rain barrels),

he wept his rainbow tears, quite carefully:
catching them on his

frescoed fingertips,

one by one-
so that later

in 200 years they were widely prized

by the great collectors everywhere

for their unusual sheen-


mary angela douglas 8 may 2011