The Snow Queen's Carol

[to Hans Christian Andersen, thank you wholeheartedly that the Snow Queen was defeated in your story]

bees are asleep and yet they sting
said she all in her white winter;
garb and glamour sustaining.

here where honey is ice;
the flowered only a glaze;
your eyes in a maze

when seeing becomes impossile.

of all impossible things, it is my riddle:
bees are asleep and men asleep
where none can weep

hiding the honey of their tears.
and the frost sheep grazing
and the home hearths blazing down

where the moon cries sparrow, sparrow
is it such a little thing to sing?
down to the heart's marrow

knitting the skeins of distances
I shine.
and give no light at all. fa la

mary angela douglas 9 novemer 2015