It Is Maytime In The Picture Book

it is maytime in the picture book:
hence, the pink ribbons, pale, the
blue, mint green,

the lemon lovely, fluttering
the children holding on so lightly
lightly to the ribbon's end 

around the festive maypole wending and
never needing to let go.
and the little girls

in pastel skirts are lilting;
the boys in jackets of peach
or primrose

so beyond reach
beyond the range of human griefs or toil
beyond time forever in merriment

they in the green sward
draw no swords but seem
a part of an idyllic scene

for which there are
no dream words yet
in a primer vocabulary.

and our faces with their faraway aspect,
still in their morning's velvets shine with
a secret wish to be dressed in pastels

all the time as if illustrating
in our several petticoats
and the pinafores layering-

all this flowering...

we will move on from age to age
leave birthdays behind and
the buttercream rose.

but today- today is ours to
absorb intensely the page
as if it were all we had to learn

with its border of half blown roses
its few ferns.

mary angela douglas 3 february 2016