Goodbye To Poetry;The Spoken Word Is a Bare Cupboard

everyone is smiling here

the room is thick with the word "poetry"

I cannot smile;despite the refreshments

the congenial crowd  honey sweet with masked enthusiasm

the golden linnet has flown away

I know that it won't return

but everyone will go on speaking anyway

saying something

smiling tenderly at the end with a question mark

as their voice recedes I take to mean

you will accept this as a poem won't you

I know that I would like to

if only I had not seen the snares laid

for my linnet

if only it had not flown away into the clouds of violet

never to return at least not here

in the green shade unmade.

mary angela douglas 29 april 2021