Looking Glass

if you break the ripples in the water

will you enter the looking glass of the lake

will the perseid showers make then an appearance

and all around the rim of the rose will there be dew

these questions I almost asked You

breaking the web of a garlanded silence

in star flecked chiffon on the night in question

fleeing to hear the greenwood's fretted song

now I abide in the snow flecked time thereafter

the glitter dome shaken the question on the other side

and know that I am still the bride

bearing the selfsame  riddle on the urnward tides.

mary angela douglas 17 february 2021

You'll Trudge On Through The Fairy Wood All Alone

you'll trudge on through the fairy wood all alone

the others having been taken by the hand,

led back another way

to where there is bread

spread with honey butter.

small doors shut tight

against the snows.

oh how unkind you cannot even think

in the finger freeze of the mittens dropped

along the roseless way.

you're on the brink of falling into

the well where no wishes are

until you see one star

floating on one scrap of cloud

above this sodden earth

and suddenly your soul begins to rise

above the dank strange sorrow

unpredicted in the schoolrooms.

no one to sigh over you then

they tsked on afterwards

as if they knew.

how could they.

ah, but

only through you

as though you were a looking glass

an open window

after awhile

did they ever see anything!

the attending angel cried,

with nothing like a smile

mary angela douglas 20 march 2015