FOR LAKE WOBEGON, DISAPPEARING
for Garrison Keillor
the land is going away they cried
let it be Green Ginger's then
not appearing on all the maps
by the wayside fruit stands
at the ESSO Stations where
they wiped the windshields clear
with thick pink paper towels for free
and dished out wintertime's
Goodyear Christmas Carols
oh don't disappear and yet,
goodbye to the land
rising in an apricot apotheosis, dear
its cornstalks like the fiery golden spears
sometimes appearing
in paintings of St. George and the Dragon.
we will miss you when we're walking on
the air that's left
when Beauty leaves the room
or on craters where the apple orchards stood
in white pink radiance cadences of the blessed
and it's not I that have a tear in my eye
or that myriad lakes have all dried up
from ruthless second guessing
for as yet the earth beneath them
mourns in a strange blue clay
remembering-
but that the sum of all things,
mermaids turning to stone
they murder in this world
that find their place again
down God's long
golden road
still fills up my Soul.
mary angela douglas 4 december 2017
for Garrison Keillor
the land is going away they cried
let it be Green Ginger's then
not appearing on all the maps
by the wayside fruit stands
at the ESSO Stations where
they wiped the windshields clear
with thick pink paper towels for free
and dished out wintertime's
Goodyear Christmas Carols
oh don't disappear and yet,
goodbye to the land
rising in an apricot apotheosis, dear
its cornstalks like the fiery golden spears
sometimes appearing
in paintings of St. George and the Dragon.
we will miss you when we're walking on
the air that's left
when Beauty leaves the room
or on craters where the apple orchards stood
in white pink radiance cadences of the blessed
and it's not I that have a tear in my eye
or that myriad lakes have all dried up
from ruthless second guessing
for as yet the earth beneath them
mourns in a strange blue clay
remembering-
but that the sum of all things,
mermaids turning to stone
they murder in this world
that find their place again
down God's long
golden road
still fills up my Soul.
mary angela douglas 4 december 2017
