Awake Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

[a piano piece for my sister]


is that the far kingdom she asked

through sleep misted eyes

through sleigh bells


through the tolling of dreams

small angels held her hands

I knew she was there


though the room had faded into space

the space between keys when you are little

with your first piano piece


and proud; is it Christmas there already

I heard her say in the sharp breeze

in the blue breeze turning the corner


where our roof froze over and the leaves

not long ago, on the trees, soft gardenias

in an in between season the colour of clouds.


you were clad in snow and if I could have

I would have painted you in blue and rose

the way you looked at five or four


in your first sun dress

oh don't get cold I cried aloud in my sleep

then everything vanished.


and I was what they call in this life,

on any green apriled evening

wrapped in pearl occasions like a first concerto


younger then,

and "awake."



mary angela douglas 8 april 2019