THE VIVID ROSE ENSOLEIL IN THE OUTER SNOWS (REPOSTING DUE TO TITLE CHANGE)

 

THE VIVID ROSE ENSOLEIL IN THE OUTER SNOWS

[in memory of my grandmother, Lucy White Young ]

these peripheral fairy stories

I still wind

on a reel of gold

even if the pictures are flickering

in this Celluloid mirror

and the glass slipper slips to the stones

and shatters

before it can be found.

I still preserve like

muscadine jam the

soul's gilt gingerbread;

it's peppermint and gemstone gumdrop

crenellations;

all sugar plum, pastel expectations;

a panoramic view at Easter

of violet-trimmed hats

against a primrose sky;

the key to the heart's most

singular libretto, a

treble clef of stars:

music unfolding like this fugue of far dimensions.

my mother's singing in a green plaid dress:

butter and sugar on enchanted bread,

the faraway Land of Green Ginger,

tomato soup, grilled cheese

fruit cocktail.

ever-closer I gather my anomalies,

secured for a glittering denouement:

twelve fairies with their gifts,

a summer piano's

"Rustle of Spring",

a bird's chilled singing in the holy rain

the spinning wheel unspun

the last sleeve sewn.

the princess clouding capture

with a milky quartz

(tucked into a secret pocket

before the school bell);

treading the springtide scriptures of a dream

coping with wrapped enigmas,

her tears of pearl recondite-

like everything else.

prayers with no transliteration, heard

even from such dim towers.

all you know.

mysteriously without the wind

the green tree tops begin to bend;

taken up at the hem

the cherry-glazed day arrives:

the vivid rose ensoleil in the outer snows.

mary angela douglas 18 may 2009,title change: 10 june 2024

*ensoleil: with the sun's rays around it as in heraldic pictures. (Fr.)