Children Wanted Cherries Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

children wanted cherries
embroidered on their pinafores
pockets to hold the butterscotch sun in

a stiff kite wind for apricot dragons
maps for fun and hidden treasure:
there's the spot.

and will you be the one to find
the ducats, rubies spilling over
or the one to fall down in clover

laughing every time you fall
and then forget where you wanted to go
and stay there to make daisy chains

and chains of flowers to bind the world.
I like to think you would.
and that your world was good.

so good we could pass out chocolates
all around even when it wasn't Christmas
or somebody's birthday.

and you would whisper: have you heard?
it's the birthday of the World.

mary angela douglas 3 october 2017