The Jeweled Nightingale Arrives

how hushed the courtiers appear
in paintings of that era.
but not as hushed as death arrives

or snows to blight the
Emperor's rose estate.
they wait...and fanfare grows

to rival anything heard before.
and there it is: with twining jewels,
handcrafted of gold and

bought and sold,
the borrowed tune it plays all day.
and the nightingale flees the Palace

unobserved. an ordinary bird
said some on the outskirts
and no, I cried

while the clouds sighed sunset colours.
that is music as it flies perhaps
returning no more.

alone by the shore;
we live out our mourning.

mary angela douglas 6 december 2015