ONLY YOU KNOW

the gold netted chocolates at Christmas, home

in memory seem more vast than all the pirate treasure avast!

in fanciful stories where the pictures gleam with the

mingled rubies and emeralds the pieces of eight

doubloons cannot mitigate my sorrow

I sob in the interim dreams, the passageway home

locked and bolted the little rose garden

the doves down the chimney to ash

puppet shadows one and all

and Time has fastened the latch

and no heat or lights on

at that house from the distance

because it is owned by someone else

although in memory

in memory it becomes fresh treasure

polished and heaped up

but my ghosts have gone

and inhabited their rightful heaven

and they seem to move on

in great cycles like the stars

oh God, oh where they are

and how and what they do

only You know for certain.

I must make do.

mary angela douglas 29 january 2023