Still Life, Come To Life! (With Blue Birds)

they are that shade of blue that made you happy as a child

like turquoise mixed with the milk of pearls and they

could fly and you could follow them then to

no bitter kingdoms but now they stay in groves

of pink clouded trees the winds won't stir but

if they did you would stand under the delicate branches

delicate as you were

holding your breath and showered in pink flowers

of course you could be but now the branches

blend

into a light that cannot rise or set and you feel restless

and you are here wishing with all your might

the birds in the iridescent hedges of the night

would come to life and the kingdom the kingdom

painted in fine colours on the flowing air

why

you would suddenly just

be there

mary angela douglas 18 february 2015

What If It Isn't Exactly The Dreamland You Wanted

what if it isn't exactly the dreamland you wanted in your dream

will you still make do behind your cheerful
 curtains with the ruffles?

and you ordered the cherry sprigged dress and not the one

with the yellow pockets well, it's a dream, what can be done is done

by someone shifting the scenery.

or the hills or pink or they are blue

and the painters are all painting it that way in the dream studio

but you there in the doorway whose dream it is are

standing in the doorway and can't move a shoe inside

well what do you want? A bus to dreamland?

I dreamed of buses too. the drivers forgot where they were going

and just disapeared and you got off in a town

that wasn't there before

or after

mary angela douglas 12 february 2015

A Far Away Feeling At The Birthday Party

[a true story...]

a far away feeling at the birthday party

and you remember something from the long ago

yet, how can you? you're only ten years old.

the cake seems meant for someone else.

the raspberry ice from some other season.

you feel beyond all rhymes and cannot reason it out

you only feel:

surveying the table as if from soft distances:

are these presents

wrapped in pink and blue with their contrasting

curled ribbons really meant for you?

and there's a strangeness like an invisible guest

who says to you suddenly but in your own language:

but who are you? you wonder, suddenly apart.

and the sun leaves rings on all the furniture.

the children's voices

still like larks but

in a garden someone before you knew

are just beside you in their party dress and festive too but

you're in a larger room...

mary angela douglas 26 january 2015