It Is Night In The Emerald City (Second Version)

it is night in the Emerald City

I don't know why I am writing you

this letter

the chartreuse stars sparkle up ahead

but is this cause for celebration?

there are multitudes onstage

but no one in the audience

and we were standing

so magically by

in April's dappled shade:

waiting for the cue to go on.

yet birds still trill

and in the stillness

golden poems are launched.

who will christen them,

will you?

at night in the Emerald City

it's so hard to sleep:

they are codifying everything.

I'm burning down the corner

of another unknown page:

here's fuel for a winter's instant!

last evening from my window
I heard the starry sonnets muted

and bright visions so indicted

that I wept tears of emerald.

I don't know when they'll

banish this

it could be soon

but I'll love still

from universal distances

in God's own grace and conversation-

we're not locked inside this maze.

I'm certain you'll remember

performances are overbooked

at night in the Emerald City

you have to call ahead

all iridescence is forbidden;

I can't weep tears of emerald;

I just watch the stars,

not the regime

down to the last bright ember--

mary angela douglas 7 february 2009/rev. 11 february 2010