On Their Days Off

inset with jewels the uncommon day arrives
for the common reader filled with rose surmise
surveying the field of books, his fold, his kingdom

bold, her castles set with pennants, ships
with a crystal hold all held within
though modern times deny, think it's a sin

to reed and read imagination's hoard and to spend
every cent on what in ages past
to only kings was lent

the beauty of a bordered page
the soul recaptured
though the landlords rage

at such inspected clutter;
hazard the waves the renter 
thinks I will

as soon as this pale diatribe 
fades into far hills
a mariner of words I will return

to everything since childhood
I could not help but learn
and learn and learn

sheer beauty on the friendly page.
the snowy one from age to age.
the one that kept me from the world's dim cage

since I began
will light my path beyond The Very End.

mary angela douglas 12 january 2020