Three Bunches of Cherries

in your cherry brocade of a story
who would deign to live?
sniffed the princess

amazingly picky.
I mean, cherry brocade.
how could she?

so let's take a look at the larder
in a dream.
as before, it's much

larger than in real life.
fantastically so.
enough cherry preserves

for an army.
even twice on Sundays...
Cherries again?

sniffed the princess

all winter long.
how tiresome.
little stars came out in the dream

and yet it wasn't really night
you know how dreams can be.
we make allowances for the fantastical

as if they were children.
no one ever scolds the dreams:
oh why don't you grow up.

except the Princess.

mary angela douglas 17 october 2015

P.S. She sniffed a lot. I would have given her my pocket handkerchief as she always kept a cold, but it was embroidered with cherries...