You, If You Had Listened

you would have to know the wider story

to know why the music's played that way

she may have said that day

closing the piano bench with the sheet music stored

the sheet music stored and the house surrounded by sudden

spring rain the kind I loved because it smelled green to me

and when you played the piano it showered green notes;

that was in a dream.

and the plum buds opened into a blue pink kind of scene

perceptibly staged

that was lavender only

if we were very still

if you did not spill your ice cream

on your Sunday frock.

if you listened to the Debussy quietly.

mary angela douglas 20 december 2020