Monday, July 12, 2021

TO THE BEAUTIFUL STANDING STILL

 things at a beautiful standstill cannot stay

though you with your hat full of strawberries perhaps may

seem to say, to seem otherwise

soon all berries will go

all trace of them from the dish

and we will spoon the snowy air

for provender if we are careful

even treating the flowers with utmost fragility

they will leave us too, broken stem

wayward sudden flight of petals

as if broken free into their long understated 

wish to be birds if only for a little while.

only a little while and the golden moments flee

nor all our armies can bring them back

nor all our former birthday wishes track them

to their lair

we are disappearing too Rilke said

even while lamenting the faded print of

old photographs the minted day at its rosiest

the open window we must close

though music comes through it , still.

still let it be

the beautiful standstill emblematic of Heaven

that we may say in the coming days

there once I stood with the fair clouds ruffling

and the wind winding through its river of air

it was early then

and everyone was young.

mary anegela douglas 12 july 2021

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