Sometimes The Angel

sometimes the angel comes for someone else

dressed in Florentine colors a message pouring like light through

rosy hands

past the porticoes into the olive grove and to where someone else 

waits.for the benediction you prayed for.

why am I blocked you wonder. why is no ave said to me.

you must learn to fold your dreams, to put them away.

squaring all corners;

that breathing is its  own reward on the sullen the beautiful earth.

just knowing: HE IS.

your message may come another way. from the north wind

from the ice on the pane some distant morning.

there is the pattern meant for you in the flowers of frost.

your unlikely Spring. and not another's

you will recognize it.

it will call you by name.snow thunder passing over the plains;

do not cry.

mary angela douglas 11 november 2020