She Remembers The Word Corona, Crown, The Halo Around The Sun...

[for Sister Marcella Marie Holloway
and for the poet, Paul Roche]

equinox and the orange flares of crayons in the leaves
we stencil drew and cut with blunt ended scissors
at the first cold snap, renewed; she snaps her fingers and

wraps the colours induced by frost

in her own room, using up all the tape.
for the gift wrap's sake be kind and mind
at the white gloved receptions in the afternoon

and let the scarlet maple lose all leaves at once
in a cardinal flash of breeze so that her mind is lost in the
fleetness of beauty past unreckoned on

and the air is cooled and the sunlight glows

with the regrets of her last angels.
the scholars read by candlelight of stars
the coming and waning of kings

but for you, God made the trees
that they could shed ochre tears
that you yourself would ever disappear

while the sardonic teacher read
in the corona of her years
Margaret are you grieving, dead?

before your time?

making enemies in rhyme in every line
this time the competition's clear
and casting your heart before

the unknown God? my dear, my dear,
too young to be mystically inclined.


mary angela douglas march 29 2017