Walkout

well, letters just walked off the page I was only half way reading
they were tired of forming the word "change'
especially without any modifiers

more than sick of the word "revolution"
where were the colours?
the months of the year

the Book of Hours
with pictures, illuminated

and "ruminated".

can anyone hear me say this
or do they just dismiss
this regicide of words

ah, beautiful beautiful I said,
coaxing them back
and opal, and opaline

pearlescent
they began to stream, shyly, to the corner of the page
when all is said, ah, roseate, roseate

words started eating off my plate,
and it was gold

there's violet, eglantine when all is told
they started forming little alphabet hearts
and tuning up their strings

when I said: clouds, wings, the moon outloud
the shine on everything
and kingdom, kingdom, come

when you were young
and naming all the beauteous,
one by one.

mary angela douglas 28 june 2019