All Our Ships Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

This is my day my favorite day
The one lined in gold or apricot
The one with poplars in the wind
Lining the shadowy driveway to the villa
Where we will have chocolate or is it vanilla
This is the day with maypole streamers
Cakes with frosting roses piled high
Pinker then pink or coral, oh my;
pekoe tea to wash it all down
Accented with Florentine lemons;
The day of thickly buttered garlic toast
And piping hot spaghetti for dinner like they used to make it
At the Catholic school raffles and fairs with the help of the Holy Ghost
And fair is the night oh everywhere with spangled stars
Afternoon and evening pure as cream
The day I catch the fairy tale gleam of
A moon pale dream I must have dreamed somewhere before
Of all the miracles at the door of
The Princesses who wore out their ballet shoes
Dancing till dawn on a secret lawn
Of wild jasmine

Tin whistles at the birthday feasts
The day when everything I see is the outright mirror of my heart
And the art of living is so delectable
And serendipity, as God intended it, the bottle green wave
With the lacelike foam
Means all our ships
have come laden, home.
mary angela douglas 6 august 2024