Cold Reading;Not To Be Resumed

it comes back to you like a wave, a cold one
strong enough to knock you down
you feel you are reading your own poem soundlessly

before a crowd but

there's such a lack of resonance
in the room
you might be reading in a tomb

and not the one where those who died
for beauty rest.
for truth, o, even less.

and a something's not in tune.
how discontented the orchestra seems
some Greek chorus in a dream

chanting the victims home but there's no bier.
no Delphic fire.
never mind I said to my soul.
we will be brief

and sail away before we come to grief
captive for a day
that turns out to be a century

like one mistaken from a foreign shore or
entering through the wrong door

to a stranger's wedding reception
with radar like detection
scanned and banned

when they assess
you're not one of the guests.


mary angela douglas 4 july 2019