Or Not Live At All

here on the roster of the unimportant

through my rococo angels of the rose and gold

unapologetically may I muster

the call to arms of the beautiful that has been designated

waste, ash.

something oh surely human beings no longer need.

oh all the taskmasters are in agreement. with their blank ecologies.

I will embroider every sun and moon of it, the least star

the scantest ray through the basement apartment window:

a thousand angels in each dust mote reflecting Light

or we will live in the shadow on the sundial all other colours failing

contemplating the swift the still silver rains falling

how they sweep the birds in, in waves of utterable music

how you can still hear them

though the drones drone over you.is the Great Mystery.

I will stoop to the small pink flowers in the grass

and whisper to them the end is not near

the end will never be

till the last quasar of beauty sparkles

we will endure you and I

listening to the call of wild and irrevocable beauty

from the far regions,

or not live at all.

mary angela douglas 5 march 2021

Where Are The Poems Embroidered With The Moon

where are the poems embroidered with the moon

you asked your shadows in a silver room

when there were no replies.

and children wondered not you wondered why

and who was then the guardian of sighs

the story of old kingdoms locked and barred.

these schoolrooms cannot carry light much less the one

into columns out of sight and the blackboards parry

but they cannot spell in colours upon colours

the way that we did once on butterscotched sidealks.

these kingdoms steal away the christmas snows;

the tinfoil crowns in the kindergarten plays and where

are the poems embroidered with Your suns and

all the hidden amber stored for another day

in the nectared histories of what could happen.

where are the words that could have been spun

like honey on bread. the curtains at the window;

the violets in her shawl where the winds blew

all the Springs away:

when music in you fled: small  rosebuds cried

without the colour "Red"

and penny valentine cardboards sifted

the hurricanes

mary angela douglas 13 january 2015;7 february 2015