Goodbye And Yet, Not Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

written in coloured chalk in the toyroom
or on a pincushion of silk shaped like a heart
we left a final note to the fairies

do not follow us into the world
they won't believe you
take instead the fairground train into the country

a country of lavender where never wars
wounded the skies
and where you may live

the greenwood sort of life
we knew you were partial to
when we were with you

in crimson crushed velvet.

ah, but they persisted
packing their luggage of light,
not forgetting the Grimm paperbacks

the tales of Andersen
and the heart
with its radiant needles,

already threaded...

mary angela douglas 24 july 2016