Crossing The Lawns, I See Them By Moonlight

"boys and girls come out to play

the moon doth shine as bright as day...'

=Old English Nursery Rhyme

crossing the lawns, I see them by moonlight

in fanciful dress and with their antique toys

the children who make no noise by day

ghost children over the merry green

as seen by Blake or in other rhymes

of the English kind in the orchards of Walter De La Mare

scooping bright berries with mirroring spoons and under the

restless trees content with cherries;

trailing the blue mists of dawn

and the rose ones.

silver in their play.

I see them stray and gather each other up again

in circle games

and toss the ball into the heavens so that it is meteor bright so

that the angels retrieve it, laughing

in their variegated Christmas moods.

and there is bread and milk for them as in a fairy tale and

never doom

and sweets too so that the air itself is spun sugar and the

clouds.

and the milk is from the moon

and it shines like pearl poured from the blue the dark blue

pitcher of the skies.

I see them, every boy and girl

and they are free with no disguise

as dreams are until sunrise and beyond

and the world for them is cloth of gold

as it was not on earth

and they are made of the marigold sun the morning one

and know all the exits into God. and right from wrong

as it was for them on earth

and have left me this song.

mary angela douglas 11 july 2020