If You Just Tried

but it isn't the One she said
to herself in the schoolroom;
it isn't even the Many.

it's the Exact shade that
matches the ruby slippers
or the clouds in late afternoons

and you string your lute accordingly,
don't you? pleading no contest.
it's the details like the amber of

honey on toast, its viscosity in the breakfast rooms
she laughed because all rooms were one and the same
in small apartments with their mini blinds for free;

viscosity of stars on summer nights,
the dark green awnings of trees matching the
porch swing or

on the summer night you remember,
as the wind lifted
and you are a child in blue and green 

and happy with your dessert yet
thinking in your dreaminess
you could be somewhere else, like a fairytale,

anywhere else at all; your sister agrees,

if you both just tried long enough;
jumping off of the kitchen chairs
and laughing up the hallway

onto Later On.

mary angela douglas 18 april 2016