AS IF IT COULD BE THAT WAY (FINAL VERSION)

AS IF IT COULD BE THAT WAY

let me exchange

as if it could be that way

three more wounds later on

for the silver crumbs scattered

under sudden moonlight

for I'm misplaced

in this kingdom of glass

where anything breaks into

prisms if you just look at it

and always picking rose petaled words

too fast to be believed

by the nursery floor lions

split at the seam

half-splayed in their pink night-lighted dreams

and always butternut whispering

"why is she always this far

from the castle

and no further

waiting to be believed?

as if it could be that way

that I may not distress

any further the voice

of darling God caught in the

brambles, every time;

moving that stickily on Lily-pad Paws

too beautiful to be believed

oh my savannah.

to be believed.

as if it could be that way

when I have closed my eyes

too far to see

and no one comes to find.

I will exchange

one small rosepetaled kingdom

misplaced in the kingdom of glass

for three more wounds, later on

when this has passed.

there's too much shattering anywhere

so that even the roses know it;

the rumpling lions.

mary angela douglas