St. Cecilia On Her Way At Christmas And Always

[to Sharon F. Douglas thinking of her at an early piano]

you will eat spumoni from a crystal dish
or pick out favorites from your Grandmother's candies
musical repertoire repertoire you sang

so happy home from college
in your forte
I have left these arias here

and November clouds scudding snow
and all I know of the wind.
could fill a thimble smiled

my sister in her musical way
it blows the colours down
like God's own kites and

sparkles in our doorways
making them Christmas
every day

I cried into my handkerchief
embroidered with the letter "A"
it's for angels, anyway,

the golden apples watched over by night
by night the angels sang in apricot concert
in the diffident night and we said

Jesus is not dead he lives in us
whenever we sing though everyone
looks at us and thinks we

can't know anything anything at all
about music.

mary angela douglas 12 december 2015