Valentine With Doves On The Seven Last Words Of Christ Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

I am lost in the
Kingdom of the Heart
I said to no one living

since the day they felled the
King of it all-
seven swords run through my heart

seven swords and more
and oh the hilts
set with rubies

with russet diamonds
with
the sunset of the world.

and such a vein of
jasper runs through
the soul's so pleached amazement
standing still-

that I forget the words to
sing to you
a last border ballad.

my soul.
become the white dove's scar
and anodyne of mercy-

the cleft on the curl of the
last creamed wave
in this senseless valentine

shadow-box, shadowed,
shifted by unseen wires
and winds.

the dove cries out
there's blood on the track
there's blood on the track

and more, look back
to the fairytale motto
of snow-cut

delicate drastic cameo
and descent:

Be True.

in the version scalded
by fairies under broken glass-
scattering their gifts of light far

from - from the retreating henchmen
among last things.

all swords dissolve
with the help of God
who is also weeping

who is also weeping
oh dove, dove, dove

mary angela douglas 19 august 2011,1 june 2010