THE RHYMES REMEMBERED AT LEAST SUBLIMINALLY SHINING SOMEWHERE

As if just another thief on the King’s highway

so Time trips us up in its not so rubied slippers

showing us no way home from blue ribboned fairs

though that is neither here nor there

chime the fair maidens, chorus

the Graces in my maypole ribbon streaming

sing song slightly altering dream

beware

the gilded apple, take the plain one

bread and cheese (again!) and the tartest cherries

for the pies I cannot bake

or three Queens each

with a different fate in a ballad I pray not to live

still for God’s sake I will keep the earliest signs

the crossroads of the lemons, limes

the bells of rhymney, clementine

the refreshing, difficult days with soda pops

turned sublime,the last of the strawberries

in just in time, old nursery rhymes;

like the sun there, come out of the clouds forever.

mary angela douglas 14 december 2023