Little Candles

[for Ray Bradbury]

one should always keep little candles

frosting pink, pale yellow in the drawer

with the brown paper lunch sacks and twine

with the Burpee seeds of purple futuristic Springs-

for the unexpected birthdays,

the cakes with their sudden roses.

you wouldn't walk off a cliff without your

wings, would you? icarus's old mama scolded

thinking he was still her child in love with

the golden, the golden days, "not that drawer, honey..."

one should be always be floating near

the little candles, in the drawer my dear

with the rusty railroad hammer, the greeting

cards you meant to send for the unexpected birthdays

of the ghostly friends, for icarus as a child

in the broad meadows flying in the

sun that can't go out you know

on just anyone's wish or say-so

no matter how hard it blows

mary angela douglas 12 february 2015