Yellow Organza

the toy on the table left behind

is that Time? the children asked

looking down at their blue shoes

invited in toward the end of the Party

when the grownups came

to take them off to sleep

to sleep in a drift of rose petals sweet

so that their mamas could not tell you

which is the flower and which is the child

I'll see you in a while I said to the shaft of moonlight

as I woke up in the present tense

thinking it was their ghosts 

I had just come from seeing

we were all back home

everyone there

even the old bears

the ones that came with their primrose ribbons

ages ago

when we thought they guarded the world

and sometimes the sun is pink on the wall

and we are told the story of the good little rabbits

who had blackberries for supper with cream

but I wept for Peter secretly

who had been in Mr. McGregor's garden

and was punished with no blackberries for dinner at all

and banished from the table.

if only banishment were only in stories

if I could look through the blinds and be

five years old again

and me and my sister in the room with the toy piano

we're dressed in yellow organza

like almost apricot twins

and it's the dawn of music

all over again.

mary angela douglas 12 february 2021