All The Names I Have Held In My Heart Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

all the names I have held in my heart;
cherishing so they could not depart;
fending off the days of erosions in

the picture dictionary with its beginning

of apples, or oranges, of the lemon coloured
the clementine ways, the strawberry cones
intact, the major holidays

oh Christmas firs and the snowy scenes beyond
what could have been in the tangle of Christmas bulbs unearthed
with the tinsel still in stray corners

of the universe
and the surprise of angels suddenly appearing
in the night skies

when the world whispered, incorrectly,
'Doom'

mary angela douglas 9 july 2016