Small Fairytale Told To My Sister From A Distance Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

(for Sharon F. Douglas)

she would hold her pinafore up to the moon
as if to gather moon flowers. then a flood
of stars: red, green and blue as if they came unglued

from the page came flocking into
her second best pockets.
is it Christmas yet? she said

oh it must be and the silver glitter birds
turned on a phrase from the toy piano plinking
in the dark:

pearlescent- sequined- Notes

and the violet, the twilight shades
the paper silhouetted hearts
came hastening, eating the star shards

out of her baby hands
and the red and green twinkling, blinking
over the clover beds no longer

mowed over too soon
for the applesauce spooned I'm writing, still that
this was concocted by angels hidden

between treble clef and clef
drifting from snow to snow
I said or think I did

in the rosebud glow of the nightlight,
our rabbit shadowing lands.
whose hands whose hands now

are jeweled with the glass rings from
the gumball machines and they fly over the
keys of light...

well. who can tell, even if we can't spell yet.

we made it all up..(it wasn't that hard,
going up and down the scales)

and in the morning went
to gather the dewdrops
in the front yard

thinking they were diamonds.

mary angela douglas 24 march 2015