Transparent

something in the fairy tale has made me transparent
or I have become the root system of the stars
not all of them

just a few on the right hand side of the mural
where the children sit in rows
and try to figure out the codes on the blackboards

in the early language of algebra.

I pretend to know them: both children and codes
the cosigns but I am resigned to the fact
that it doesn't go that well.

i can't understand why there are equations
and I can't keep up without a reason
my mind just balks.

I think of the castle again, a rose one

the blue velvet shadows of trees
when it begins to rain and the rains sweeps in
ruining the medieval furniture

and I am more transparent now

than I have ever been so that small birds do not fear me.
they fly straight through
and their music you could not imagine.

o crystalline you

even if the world turned to chalk dust
and staying after school forever,
you became the last one freed.

mary angela douglas 23 july 2019