Awake

[a piano piece for my sister]

is that the far kingdom she asked
through sleep misted eyes
through sleigh bells

through the tolling of dreams
small angels held her hands
I knew she was there

though the room had faded into space
the space between keys when you are little
with your first piano piece

and proud; is it Christmas there already
I heard her say in the sharp breeze
in the blue breeze turning the corner

where our roof froze over and the leaves
not long ago, on the trees, soft gardenias
in an in between season the colour of clouds.

you were clad in snow and if I could have
I would have painted you in blue and rose
the way you looked at five or four

in your first sun dress
oh don't get cold I cried aloud in my sleep
then everything vanished.

and I was what they call in this life,
on any green apriled evening
wrapped in pearl occasions like a first concerto

younger then,
and "awake."


mary angela douglas 8 april 2019