A Parable For No One Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

meeting the paradox in the hallway
I prayed hard
O Lord let me pass invisibly

and He did
but I met another on the stairwell
avoiding the elevator as it tended

to be packed with paradoxes
in the mid afternoon
all in various languages assembled

and so, arraying myself in shadows
flecked only slightly with gold

I cried

into the handkerchief of my dream
the embroidered one
and there three angels came

to tell me it will be this way
it is always this way

mary angela douglas 29 january 2016