for my sister, Sharon F. Douglas
I remember when she loved peridot necklaces
and we stood pink watch over the rose patch
courtesy of our Grandfather in our backyard or
when she entered Julliard, all summer long
before that hearing Chopin played at home
in incessant rippling beauty
as if Chopin had come back
his pale blue rainy ghost
in my Grandmother's piano studio looking on
and the notes clear raindrops you could see through
we laughed at the same jokes or our teddies did
which amounted to the same thing in the beginning
then she grew wings
stepping off the Sleeping Beauty stage
as one of the gifted fairies in the third grade
the most realistic fairy everyone agreed
the school had ever seen...
to play Hedda Gabler on an Arkansas stage
a few musical nosegays reminiscent of
Cole, Berlin, Gershwin
she breathed Gershwin breathing out a rare sapphire sound
before that a kind of crystalline
version of Amadeus.at the age of ten
with Dimiti Mitropolis
we grew apart
but not in my heart
she made people laugh
in new york caberet
with her version of Little Miss Pink Tomato
spouting Secular Umanism.
Pretty sure with a lisp.
And other glitzy characters
piano riffs
Piaf from a roseate view
I wonder if she ever knew
how much I cherished
even the memory
of how much she hated fried okra.
and loved her padded book report
in pink and blue=
on Rosa Bonheur.
mary angela douglas 11 august 2018
I remember when she loved peridot necklaces
and we stood pink watch over the rose patch
courtesy of our Grandfather in our backyard or
when she entered Julliard, all summer long
before that hearing Chopin played at home
in incessant rippling beauty
as if Chopin had come back
his pale blue rainy ghost
in my Grandmother's piano studio looking on
and the notes clear raindrops you could see through
we laughed at the same jokes or our teddies did
which amounted to the same thing in the beginning
then she grew wings
stepping off the Sleeping Beauty stage
as one of the gifted fairies in the third grade
the most realistic fairy everyone agreed
the school had ever seen...
to play Hedda Gabler on an Arkansas stage
a few musical nosegays reminiscent of
Cole, Berlin, Gershwin
she breathed Gershwin breathing out a rare sapphire sound
before that a kind of crystalline
version of Amadeus.at the age of ten
with Dimiti Mitropolis
we grew apart
but not in my heart
she made people laugh
in new york caberet
with her version of Little Miss Pink Tomato
spouting Secular Umanism.
Pretty sure with a lisp.
And other glitzy characters
piano riffs
Piaf from a roseate view
I wonder if she ever knew
how much I cherished
even the memory
of how much she hated fried okra.
and loved her padded book report
in pink and blue=
on Rosa Bonheur.
mary angela douglas 11 august 2018
