Cancelled Flights

in our hands You placed a world of light

and we believed surrounded by it in our childhood

things would come out right

and as we grew

so many flags we flew

thinking of all that we would do,

the duly annointed champions of beauty

truth and grace.

then bit by bit we saw the defacement

of You in the world and in ourselves

and hit the wall.

and felt so small

and light fled from our hands

weeping into the corners

of what they had left to us.

who knew that the heart

could be crushed to a powder

that men could make of the skies

a wingless space

and smudge the brilliance of Your face

oh God o Christ

as though

there were only night.

mary angela douglas 15 july 2