Conflations Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

there should be golden apples

a glass mountain

the force of gravity

a diffident princess

and Time to solve the riddle

so that the shoes don't wear out

and embarrass the owner

on the way to the bookshop

that wasn't there yesterday

a pink cube

with an aqua roof, slanting elliptically

the feeling of starting all over again

on a fresh sheet of paper

a freshly sharpened pencil:

go where the snow queen goes the problem's stated:

a swathe of snow

just opened cream

for the coffee.

two trains with variable speeds

in a toffee afternoon

that's the colour of the leaves

as they depart

and I'm reminding myself

art is art; fiction is fiction or

of when the fairy tales were a

brand new diction.

but there is something about this solitude

so that all riddles merge;

certain elements in a room contemplated

as if I were on a star where

there should always be these color forms mingled

even if it never gets solved

the golden apples, the crystal clause

the mountain crystal. plunging into it

like a sea

surpassing the mermaid soliloquies

it's own liebestraum and on and on

the floral accents of the harbour breeze.


mary angela douglas 23 july 2019