To Rose Fyleman

I want to live in a fairy dell
though others tell me
it won't go well

that I'll be gone for 300 years
and come back when
it's all disappeared.

but what care I
where it's always spring
and I can live under a

sparrows wing
and fashion the dew drops
into bright rings

and live on berries
and never be queried
and Christmas could come

with every new sun
and snowdrops, sweet peas
whatever you please

we'll live in the past
and last and last
thinking up dreams

and heavenly schemes
to get there from here
in some other year.

mary angela douglas 27 september 2019