Unexpected Radiances

the tragic creeps through a different keyhole than this
said alice carefully in my half dream
that comes and goes with the roses

what if ive read the wrong directions

or if I put the key in wrong so that it halfway turns
on a dungeon song

let me think it through she implored the clouds

floating over
the ruined battlements where the violets peeked through
how does time elapse in dreams, in you

do we collapse in colours painting the living stream
ourselves or

it flits from scene to scene
dissolves with no conclusions
find the slipstream through

to the garden where the birds sing
an interrupting music you are glad for.
yet the tragic creeps through

the least crevice, cornice seeping
down to the willows river strewn
and this is my half finished tune

through the same crack could come
all glorious the morning sun
in rose and amber

could roses clamber over the stone
and we cup the iris moment in our hands,
momentously

no way said the schoolmaster to elude the gloom
in the play
when the heroes are struck down this way

but I, said alice in my alice blue gown
learned better.
it's all deceiving weather

on the darkest day
pooled in your vast dear tears
the key in the lock could

click into unexpected radiances.

mary angela douglas 22 december 2019