THE POOL OF TEARS

 

to savor the taste of drowning in your own tears

was almost the fate of Alice in Wonderland

or could have been

except her interests did not that way lean

who knows how different it might have been

if Alice had dreamed of war

well, she did dream of tyranny

she seems to have been curious about it

comparing this and that

former life, or waking life with the dream

full of puzzles and great discomfort

like the sand that irritates the oyster

and produces pearls

it could be.

my question is in a time of war

is it helpful to drown in your own tears

to make poem after poem about how the pool of tears is

getting larger to insist on it getting larger

to snuffle at yourself in the self portrait of the looking

glass

the one shattered by bombs

soon the pool will enlarge

perhaps to cover the whole globe

will that be an end in itself

somewhere lies in us

the power to console ourselves

if not others

to write poems at least of

self consolation

to dream of Heaven where this is no war

to think of other days

I do believe the crying jag

will outlive the war

it has become a habit

like the White Rabbit had

of constantly looking at

a doomsday watch.

don't do this;

instead, imagine a fairy tale ending.

God never gave us

a beautiful imagination

for nothing.

on a dry shore again

Alice picked up in a nutshell

a tiny message skirled:

DREAM YOUR FREEDOM

INTO REALITY.

mary angela douglas 26 july 2023;27 july 2023;11 august 2023