Cantata of the Fireflies Jeweled, The Stars, And The Taskmasters Denied Entrance

[to [Jesus] Christ, the Lord]

your jeweled fireflies, stars, your radiant inconsistencies
your flecks of gold on an inky sea
and the ship roiling out of sight

your rose whorled sorrows caught in my bouquet
and the doorways vanishing into snows and
the lilies caught up in the light skirts netted

blue on paler satins and this is the beginning of
nothing new they scoff and I say how would you know
who cannot pass a branch without snatching

off the sequined fruit and passing it off as your own
and the firebird scatters in the orchard
all her rarities her rarities

and the poor with richness, rue in their souls

despair of ever coming home
but it all comes whirling back like Oz
stunning the evening air

with emeralds with

velvet nuances of the Springs
you have flung across our remembering
in their green in their greenesses

fountaining oh fountaining.
Christ of the vivid valentine fold on fold
we stand outside these gates

outside the pealing of odd bells untuned mere
saints of the wishing wells of
your reflecting ardor

imperishable in the crescendo, cascade of images
the crippled rainbows made whole
the soul banished here and scorned

made to bear an unconscionable load
there welcomed as at the fairy tale's end
where the shower of gold

just keeps descending and descending
and children stretch out
their dream hands willingly

no more to be
bought and sold

mary angela douglas 31 january 2016