The Lost Boys Found

[to Wendy and J.M. Barrie (by way of Peter Pan)]

did she take up her sewing later
going in for fine embroidery the
more elaborate the better to forget

that once, she sewed his shadow
back?
and did the sound of small bells

frighten her at odd moments? though
I don't think she told anyone why.
and did she stand on tiptoe ever again

remembering how she was before
before she flew,
before he came; pre-Pan, she

whispered in the dusk
of a room with doilies
foreign plants, old magazines-

precints where the stars came down
that close, roof to roof were never found again
except in dreams of frangipani.

that's where the words of no farewells possible
between such friends
will never-never gleam

through the mists, she said, however ethereal,
my dear my dear
they often

appeared
to be

mary angela douglas 14 december 2015