Have Chains Of Sadness Bound You

[after John Dowland] first variation

have chains of sadness bound you;

ropes of tears?

through the gloom I see

the dismal jewels shine

festooning ancient madrigals or rather,

like the sun, it's climbed above

the dense, deep graphite

grey of thunderheads,
a gold at a far remove, ineffectual-

in a Storybook

whose pages you are loath to turn.

Beclouded is that picture,

the one I have in mind

and no shepherds piping

in a greening meadow's clime
can I infer:

above, below, on either side

I see strange Melancholy 

on a throne of ice,

the vain assays of knights

up the glassine hill,

the silver apples rolling down,

like tears, like tears

in the stymied after tones

of all our years
consigned to the workhouse of the shrill.
like a ship that won't be turned,

the ice bound will.

mary angela douglas 27 september 2016