Summers, At The Beginning

is it ultraviolet on the colour wheel of time
you asked, checking your Mickey Mouse watch at last
much farther back than anyone expected;

we'll sort quartz by moonlight every summer
and wear perfume with autumnal highlights,
hint of the spiced rose; tangee surprises

from the variety store and glow in the dark all firefly

till goodness snows around us and it must be Christmas
you said waking up too early, falling out of bed and I laughed
because you thought the angels singing in the background

of old movies were coming to get you soon.
but ultraviolet is the colour of the hour, the moon
when the dews seep into our shoes, our summer costumes

and the clover looks so mysterious you think
it's going to whirl from the stem when
we'll have snow flowing upward you smiled

so satisfied with your imagination then.
and all the days of let's pretend
stretched out before us, never ending.

mary angela douglas 21 june 2016