ALL OUR SHIPS

 

ALL OUR SHIPS

This is my day my favorite day

The one lined in gold or apricot

The one with poplars in the wind

Lining the shadowy driveway to the villa

Where we will have chocolate or is it vanilla

This is the day with maypole streamers

Cakes with frosting roses piled high

Pinker then pink or coral, oh my;

pekoe tea to wash it all down

Accented with Florentine lemons ;

The day of thickly buttered garlic toast

And piping hot spaghetti for dinner like they used to make it

At the Catholic school raffles and fairs with the help of the Holy Ghost

And fair is the night oh everywhere with spangled stars

Afternoon and evening pure as cream

The day I catch the fairy tale gleam of

A moon pale dream I must have dreamed somewhere before

Of all the miracles at the door of

The Princesses who wore out their ballet shoes

Dancing till dawn on a secret lawn

Of wild jasmine

 

Tin whistles at the birthday feasts

The day when everything I see is the outright mirror of my heart

And the art of living is so delectable

And serendipity, as God intended it, the bottle green wave

With the lacelike foam

Means all our ships

have come laden, home.

mary angela douglas 6 august 2024