Gerda's Victory

[from a cycle of poems on Hans Andersen's The Snow Queen]

locked in the snows of her devices
that dubious queen of cold commands,
how could he hope to break the mirror?

there he is, amid silvered branches
intact as the mirror's backing

and he is glowing from the kiss of death.
Gerda breathed upon the glass
and it stopped snowing

and he stopped knowing
anything of all he thought he knew:
that vast expanse...

and this has come, at last, thought Gerda
her warm tears flowing:
the spell of spells cast down

the snow bees find their hives.
and we are so alive.

mary angela douglas 2 august 2015