How Do You Know

why were there so many gatekeepers
keeping the wrong things out
letting the wrong things in

she would wonder later,
even in Heaven her thoughts
in a cast of blue

the same shade as the only dress
she could find to wear in dreams
as if she were a doll

that came that way
when the box was opened.

and the garden was closed all Spring
or either she was too tall
or too something else

wherever she went
or was carried
by some child who said

sit here, just so
under the cherry tree,
in the snow.

and then was called to supper.
never coming back
so that she was scolded

in the morning
with the dress sopping with dew
this isn't pleasant she

thought in the thought transference
of the angels nearest her
and turned to other things

I know
because I dreamed it too.

mary angela douglas 20 april 2019