Pink Lotus Poem Floating On Other Waters Than My Own

pink lotus poem floating on other waters

I know you belong to someone else,

and not to me

and that you are embroidered with stars
 red lilies from storied kingdoms.

I know I am not privileged to understand

the pearl of your silence opening into:

 terraced gardens of comb embossed ghosts.

I know that you are lost

or about to be orphaned.

and I want to stay

under a bright peony umbrella.

if I could find one,

among my souvenirs.

and to weep-

on a narrow bridge.

pink lotus poem

your mother must miss you.

your brothers may have searched

through centuries

through a fog that will not lift

losing each other, sinking with the sun's
forgotten toys...

or is that the rain

is that the mist

that hides your face from them
or is it that

your face has become a cloud?
in the season of weddings.

oh must I pray where there is little grace

and men don't speak in words outloud

but in riddles earned like daily bread

of you, like the linen moon through clouds,

glimpsed only, 

never written down

mary angela douglas 24 june 2014;rev. 23 april 2015