Wherever You Go

kings and queens kept losing their crowns

this was why the grass sparkled in the early a.m.s

when the school bus rounded the corners.

our theory, don't you like it?

no more play now

no one ever told us!

we continued the discussion all day

at the tea parties in our minds

pass the sugar cakes please

in between dreaming three plus three

there was also what to do about

wearing the same pink dress as yesterday

and if a curtsy was necessary

or a piano recital bow and should there be

pink satin bows on the dress sleeves?

let the paper dolls decide

and keep the key my Grnadmother said

with Walter de la Mare

to the cupboard with the banbury cakes

for me me me

well, I will.

well anyhow no one had to say twice to us

or even at all

each year in the Fall

when in our plaid dresses

we headed out (and with new plaid satchels!)

your mind is still free

wherever you go

even while they're assigning you

homework, for the next day.

and especially when it snows

and I think, anyway,

that would have been the best thing

to know of all,

if we had even needed to learn it.

mary angela douglas 24 september 2017

ref. to de la Mare in the poem and allusion is from the following poem;

The Cupboard

by Walter de la Mare

I know a little cupboard,
With a teeny tiny key,
And there's a jar of Lollypops
For me, me, me.

It has a little shelf, my dear,
As dark, as dark can be,
And there's a dish of Banbury Cakes
For me, me, me.

I have a small fat grandmamma,
With a very slippery knees,
And she's Keeper of the Cupboard,
With the key, key, key.

And when I'm very good, my dear,
As good as good can be,
There's Banbury Cakes, and Lollypops
For me, me, me.