CHOOSE

To Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

we'll skate on the wind if all else fails
and bring the stars back in pails
so they won't glaze over

saving the orange groves, too

building the Spring from mementos
oh, all the fading blossoms lest
they fade from memory too

they will say we are negligent
not attending to present business
unaware, fiscally unsound

but there is a crystal stair in every poem
or installation, Kabakovs proved.
others, too.

we can go up them if we choose

or we can stay here.
in a cloying weariness, wilderness bonded.

mary angela douglas 22 june 2019