Cherry Trumpets Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

[remembering the trumpets of Herb Alpert 'Up Cherry Street']

transposing the cherry trumpets in the sunlight
or twirling a pink parasol shade
we came to life

in lessons of astronomy
when we could gaze and gaze
in our backyard and there's Orion

and how it does amaze
Orion remains though others have gone away.
and the cherry trumpets replayed on the phonograph

and the cantinas blue as blue
their twilights tied with silver ribbons;
the evening dew.

time is music or music is time
we thought we knew.
it's only later as the music fades

we feel that it's not true.
and yet we linger when the music starts
and feel it's altered in our hearts

as though we were fresh winds again
paused at a golden beginning;
sweet on the tongue as a candy that lasts forever

knowing all, all the songs.

mary angela douglas 6 april 2016