Carpathian Journal Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

someone else's treble clef dropped out of the sky
and fell slipper soft upon the new sprung grass
where I was idling thinking of lovely intervals
of lovely intervals and a phrase floated down
as if proffered by angels, something...
carpathian journal in violet whispers or was it the
vermilion, the bronzed sunsets
an avalanche of rose
was it a code mislaid by someone in the front office
peace made with a former enemy
a purple horizon arriving
or a yellow one.
I will go back and arrange my Grandmother's irises

and pick my Grandfather's marigolds

and look up something in his stacks of
the National Geographic from that veryInternational Geophysical Year
when I learned to hear the pear toned echo and not the one of ruinous
consequence the Giant's Fee Fi Foe and Fum
spelled out like a law firm from Kingdom Come
when I was dreaming beside the new grass springing
of the carpathians in purple relief on a grade school map
and ate my cake of poppy seed and riddles accordingly
and sang my cherubic cherry folk song over twice
and opened the mail chute in the clouds

on a day of alphabets foreordained
on a day they served pineapple upside down cake
in the cafeteria and small I with my best thick pencil

smote with starry aims
the pale ruled tablet:

to begin

mary angela douglas 11 august 2020; rev. august 14 2020