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

The Snow Queen's Carol

[to Hans Christian Andersen, thank you wholeheartedly that the Snow Queen was defeated in your story]

bees are asleep and yet they sting
said she all in her white winter;
garb and glamour sustaining.

here where honey is ice;
the flowered only a glaze;
your eyes in a maze

when seeing becomes impossile.

of all impossible things, it is my riddle:
bees are asleep and men asleep
where none can weep

hiding the honey of their tears.
and the frost sheep grazing
and the home hearths blazing down

where the moon cries sparrow, sparrow
is it such a little thing to sing?
down to the heart's marrow

knitting the skeins of distances
I shine.
and give no light at all. fa la

mary angela douglas 9 novemer 2015