(to my father, Robert R. "Bob" Douglas, newspaperman extraordinaire who did not like poetry, this poem I dedicate by virtue of the one line: "the smell of newsprint like a kind of faith")
how grown up we felt at our small desks
reading The Weekly Reader hot off the press
take one and pass it back
(with color illustrations, graphs)
the childsize news in brief;
the smell of newsprint like a kind of faith.
even if we weren't the hall monitors
the sugar plums in the play
we still had our allowance
for the book fairs in late may
like a renaissance on parade
so they seem to me, looking back
a lavish paegentry I guess
or later ordering from the summer newsletters
four paperbacks for a dollar choose carefully
like holiday candy sight unseen
but with thrilling pint sized blurbs
will you have orange, or raspberry creams?
imagine this adventure under leafy trees...
reading the high seas, the treasure, kidnapped;
Jane Eyre, when the lightning struck the oak
or rainsoaked on the road to who knows what comes next
reading The Weekly Reader hot off the press
take one and pass it back
(with color illustrations, graphs)
the childsize news in brief;
the smell of newsprint like a kind of faith.
even if we weren't the hall monitors
the sugar plums in the play
we still had our allowance
for the book fairs in late may
like a renaissance on parade
so they seem to me, looking back
a lavish paegentry I guess
or later ordering from the summer newsletters
four paperbacks for a dollar choose carefully
like holiday candy sight unseen
but with thrilling pint sized blurbs
will you have orange, or raspberry creams?
imagine this adventure under leafy trees...
reading the high seas, the treasure, kidnapped;
Jane Eyre, when the lightning struck the oak
or rainsoaked on the road to who knows what comes next
under any pretext reading on
while sipping strawberry fanta sodas or wearing your plastic shades
with rhinestones purchased at the five and dime.
could later riches ever measure up in Time
I would have thought had I been cognizant enough
in my white dress at the jr. high graduation
wishing gardenias into my hair.
in a dress of cutwork percale, Grandmother's pearls
while sipping strawberry fanta sodas or wearing your plastic shades
with rhinestones purchased at the five and dime.
could later riches ever measure up in Time
I would have thought had I been cognizant enough
in my white dress at the jr. high graduation
wishing gardenias into my hair.
in a dress of cutwork percale, Grandmother's pearls
as we sang our wistful anthems to the earth,
still dreaming it all up.
mary angela douglas 21 march 2017;6 august 2022
still dreaming it all up.
mary angela douglas 21 march 2017;6 august 2022
