Let Stories Rainbow Reign

maybe it could have been another way
the orphans in the storm and the
miraculous rescue

on the Christmas highways and byways
and the angels gloria in excelsis deo
from the loudspeakers in the snow

shop windows with poster paint stenciled
trees and berries all aglow and
all for you the gingerbread with the cinnamon buttons

and your frock entirely of velvet.

or the little match girl dressed in the gold
of the one kind word you could say you passerby
with errands to run elegant presents to stow

and the silver curling ribbons of the frost
across the panes and the race is won
oh where

she will never be warm.
in old stories she could
unlatch the dungeon

find freedom from curmudgeons feel
all the changes of heart one could wish for
and the heart's lone chapel

filled with the evergreen.
but outside those borderlands
we find in the world an immense pain

more than we could bear
individually beyond what
one would have thought possible

who would have thought possible
tears streaming like rain unto vast floods.
then let stories rainbow reign.

mary angela douglas 26 march 2017