Pink Patent Pocketbook Song On The Planet Mars

[to my sister and the colour, "pink"]

you with your pink pocketbook

would always do well

in the wilderness, woods

with the moth lights glow before you

or pirouetting on the edge of

What May Come

with a silk parasol, flame-like,

the color of the moment

you were in oh

in the garden in organdie

with ruffles that matched

our orange juice

we barely learned to walk

poured out in a summer shade

because it seemed like we could fly

we knew we could

if we just tried,

and not because of Walt Disney.
(well not, just because of him)

I pray you are in the shade now

cold drinks at hand

stores of candy, all your own the

trunks full of pirate gold.

I'm out here weaving clover chains

on my own pretending I'm again

in the old back yard

where once we went inside

and there was pink lemonade cake

and all the wishes I can make

I think are about used up

so I'll use this last one

just like we did that summer

practicing for when the wish fairy comes

we'll wish for infinite wishes

and there'll be no end

as there's not to stars

and we'll go off and arm in arm

to live on Mars with our

matching pink pocketbooks.

mary angela douglas 24 march 2015

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

Sonatina In Rose

to live in a house with rose patterned wall papers

overlooking a rose garden

and when it snows, the roses merely sparkle

not forgetting to bloom.

to drift from rose room to room

as if you were fine perfume.

the venetian blinds are pink.

the tablecloths pale green.

you play the piano and then it seems

that music blooms and remembers your name.

how when the rose gold of familiar clouds shifts

over the trees

will you explain to the neighbors

to the angels at their ease

the tint of your windows.

or how will you even care

who live, a rose, among roses

anywhere you dream this.

mary angela douglas 26 january 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