Were We Painting On Clouds While We Lived On Earth

"were we painting on clouds while we lived on earth..."
I heard them sigh, "did all that drift away?"
in the eternal breezes down the

esplanades of Heaven
shimmering almost sad
where the gold leaf trees

never lose their leaves.
are there no more autumns then?
asked the child in me, in Paradise?

ah it will seem to you then as now
perhaps their better angels said in sweet surmise,
you wrought it all in vain

that the dark rains came, the darker floods
and carried it all away.
and yet, it is not so.

mary angela douglas 28 may 2015