THE SNOW QUEEN AND OTHER REGIMES

this is how melting started in the annals

of the world the unsmiling instructor

began...

but this is not the beginning she thought

inside her head where no one could hear

her yet

the child quite small at her desk

on wide ruled paper began to write

not what the teacher said but

the history of melting, in colours

of the flowers that appeared

in dream spectrums the snow itself

a spectrum of violets of orchids

of camellia alphabets no longer cryptic

and how it feels not to freeze anymore

to be free of mathematics falsely applied

to face those that lied to you with

a flower crowned head

and to be regally happy

no longer standing in corners

punished for enchantment,

for buttering bread on the wrong side and-

when you come down to it:

for withstanding even from a young age

the soul plucked out by the roots

for today's lesson on botany.

mary angela douglas 21 may 2015