IF YOU LEAVE THINGS AS THEY ARE

if you leave things as they are

I prayed to my reflection's reflection

maybe there will be less heartache

if you let the sunrise manage by itself

to rise in pink and gold

without your trying to console it

and the wind blow across your face

as if over a field of flowers

if you do not mangle all the hours

by trying too hard like  the way

you try to play the piano piece at first

all jangled, impatient to hear

what will not disappear

if you take longer to learn it.

let the sunrise be the inward color of conch shells

you never got over, the pearl of it

a marine rose you would have called it

if you had known back then.

call it now. it already exists.

you don't make, you don't have to make it yourself

you don't have to be everything. to recount it all.

you just have to turn the next page.

mary angela douglas 18 may 2023