The Snow Queen And Other Regimes Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

this is how melting started in the annals
of the world the unsmiling instructor
began...

but this is not the beginning she thought
inside her head where no one could hear
her yet

the child quite small at her desk
on wide ruled paper began to write
not what the teacher said but

the history of melting, in colours
of the flowers that appeared
in dream spectrums the snow itself

a spectrum of violets of orchids
of camellia alphabets no longer cryptic

and how it feels not to freeze anymore
to be free of mathematics falsely applied
to face those that lied to you with

a flower crowned head
and to be regally happy
no longer standing in corners

punished for enchantment,
for buttering bread on the wrong side and-
when you come down to it:

for withstanding even from a young age

the soul plucked out by the roots
for today's lesson on botany.

mary angela douglas 21 may 2015