Inconsolable Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

shaking out hidden embroideries

on the run in slippers of the ghazal

she stumbles almost to fall

at the city's gate of pitch

becoming pearl

fled into moonlight

none to explain her spectre

turn the page ivoried with age

or tea stained as was the rage back then

and on parchment as by order of the king

explain to the children why o why

who made the holes in the sky

where once there were stars.

mary angela douglas 30 october 2022; 17 february 2023