Who Are You Where Have You Been

(for Glenda Hamilton, in eternal friendship)

who are you where have you been

perhaps your attending angel "sends to know", my friend,

from the Christmas bustle perpetually that is Heaven

but you're a child of the rain and the wind

and can't tell your tears from the rain on the windowpane

so she asks again, the angel, this time speaking in a voice of

marble that dissolves into clouds and scatters the starlight farther on

who were you how have you been

but you turn the page of the book you never finish

the one with green leaves on the cover

the one that's written in the amber of the last sun.

mary angela douglas 31 august 2021