THE SHINING CLOCKWORK OF THE DAY EBBS OUT

all the shining clockwork of the day ebbs out

now that they've put an end to minstrelsy

plum shine is speechless in the quaking of it;

you rest in an armchair sleeping;

dreaming of the news from far away

and still no matter what

may hear it gleaming through all the Mays

what else is there but poetry I say

or poetry misfiled, mislaid, waylaid

the orchestra at odds with each other

but I remember every jewel inlaid

and cannot trade it for another.

the trees breathe it out past all but calculation now

but once they were strung like lyres

from bough to bough

when we were their christening

while all I can bring myself to say to you aloud

is how on God's snow dazzling Watch

could they ever think it would be allowed

to kill to quell,

the flowering and the glistening.

mary angela douglas 6 august 2023

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1Mary Angela Douglas