Walking On The Jewels Of Your Silence

walking on the jewels of your silence

I saw the winter sky come down

enfolding a long-ago radiance.

a child turns the page

and traces the angels.

you scattered amethyst on the snow

turning my pockets overnight

into Christmas or mother-of-pearl.

brightness, you called it:

will it fly away?

once I was living on the fair isle

where I learned to say:

those must be angels coming down

with diamonds in their hands...

there are deeper ripples in the air

where music was before.

my dreams are banked so high

where could I turn to start again

the porcelain beginning of the measure?

the first rung in the sidewalk.

my dreams are banked so high.

my dream is leaving this way

just as the glaze begins to fall apart

on a pale green piano piece

not yet memorized-

mary angela douglas november 28-30 2011