The Princess Who Never Smiled Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

[an old folktale, revisited...]

they have set their nets of laughter for me
in all the befores and afters that can be and
they imagine that I do not know

as if I cannot see that
from the rafters of Heaven
God set all his riddles in motion

and named them with the stars.
how far they are from guessing mine
they will not find.

starlight glows, abiding time.
and I through the window look the
other way and live in profile

as though I were a cameo
about to speak:
all ivory, for the multitudes

as if I knew anything.

mary angela douglas 3 august 2015