Lightning Falls Apart And Then To Earth Provides

lightning falls apart and then to earth provides
a moment's spotlight and are you there
in its charmed circle, bright-

here on imagination's strand?

can we stand anymore
the keepers at the door of the pearled?
said a modern world

you won't know what you've said
said a little girl?
till you've said it something interposed

the lightning flash on the rose
word fragrant with its long agos
neither here nor there

in a box, hidden everywhere
with a folkloric lid, and your own key
that you perhaps use sparingly

not knowing you don't have to.

the first you read on the blank sky
of a page not yet turned
and there ever after you longed to go

where snows of silence can disclose
uncloyed and spiced like Araby
the feeling beyond all this

that makes you break down
in joy

mary angela douglas 12 march 2016