Alas The Geese Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

(tO Hans Christian Andersen)

alas the geese in the fairy tale have escaped and now they have crossed

between the pictured brook and the marshy grasses into some other neverland and I can no longer find them

princess in disguise I was not, will not be and they have fled and every image of them

underground

this is the world we live in now where the ducklings must forego the swans

even the swans themselves find not their reflection in the mourning waters

what is there to say about that this is not a normal news day

though the teletypes clack through the time warp

and they all say my report is inexact

you will sing the notes of the swan perhaps

and they will call you geese even so.



mary angela douglas `10 november 2020