Maypole Dancing Dulcet As Spring

["Sweet spring, full of sweet dayes and roses,

A box where sweets compacted lie;"

-George Herbert, Vertue

maypole dancing dulcet as spring

streamers of pink, of green of lemon

like the sun, of violet, pale

cerise and candy spun and spinning

as if we are flowers flowers themselves

and first of the illustrations first of May

in a book of old stories inscribed carefully

in someone else's april handwriting

sloping, violet-fed. sighed the princess,

in every colour.

and she's in a dotted swiss, pale green

and a rose rose riband of velvet

because

it's green we are dancing holding onto

the sun (to a lemon drop one) and

taffy pulling the pink and the green

and the pale cerise, cerise.

compacted sweets she decided on

for a birthday in a silver box,

wide with a ribbon of lavender sheen and I

want that dress in every colour, please;

oh sheerly

pleasingly holding onto the light the Princess

dreamed: imploring the Flower Queen

getting lost in the spectrum and laughing.

and this is where wishes were granted-

pastel, with softest slippers to match...

mary angela douglas 16 february 2014