It's A Tin Toy Cash Register Feeling

it's a tin toy cash register feeling

that starts ringing up in my dream

all the keys are bright red plastic

like they used to be and something-

almost a bicycle bell rings Christmasy

and true and the tin toy tray pops open.

it's true there's no money in the drawer.

we buried our gold long ago, sigh the miners.

I am lost.

how can I count the cost of

things with no price on them?

asks my sister

stacking the plastic oranges.

we munch on Sunday night chicken

playing bird lotto till the dawn

when I will

turn aside to other toys, perhaps-

coating the day with a thin wash of

basic Prang watercolours

while the dolls in pink eyelet

petticoats mourn-

mary angela douglas 2014