A Plan For Making It Through All On Your Own Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

maybe they want the beautiful to disappear
so that they may rule and reign, the trolls,
present under every bridge and you


must pay their fee.
or stay at home.
how often then would we long


for the cloak of invisibility
at any birthday, under the Christmas tree
welcomed

or on the list of the required
school aupplies.along with the protractor
the pencil case that slides open.

and the cray pas.
but aboveground we were too visible a target.
how do roses grow I thought in this cold climate

why do not all castles sink at every nod and wink
at the dubious eyebrow raised in the
nightmare madrigal. near graduation

You are on the brink they say
of the life before you.
but you know

they're out there under the
bridge construction going on
all the time out on highway 101

just waiting for you, the trolls
near the office park where you will work
for some one's professional smirk to

grow smirkier while you toil and
where you must learn again and again
not to depend on accolades.or good reviews

just be glad that you are you that God is nigh
still making it through
and safe across the bridge again by nightfall

behind your rose clabbered walls
small but free
reading about invisible kingdoms


lost continents where nothing like this
is required of you.beyond merely blooming.


mary angela douglas 20 march 2018