For Sharon In Her Musical Displays Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

I wonder if we'll be on the other side of music one day

ushered in with pink programmes

or you will swing on the gate of it


as you did before, roller skating

in preludes, wading through scales., Scarlatti

geranium coloured.


will the notes sound like crystals


falling; will we still admire the azaleas?

will Grandmother spell out tone poems

while we listen to small records


of the great composers;

remember, when we're away


the reticence of Beethoven


how he was charged with Light

after the rains, the wind shaking the leaves free of raindrops.


will the sheet music be scattered through the rose garden

because we left the windows open


or glimpsed in the pink nightlight


short songs on the page, arranged.

our faces in cameo infant profile; the toy pianos at rest

and then, the nocturnes.the almond trees somewhere,


blossoming.


it seems so distant now

the way we dreamed it then:

both hands on the keys


the gardenias, scented through the back screen door


now we are carried each on such a wave

through portals on a ship that wasn't there before


we never booked passage on.

you said in your sleep a baby corsage!

I know you must have in your rabbit dreams


with the guardian angels and the metronome;


this is Heaven


this is home where

music goes on and Mama sings our birthdays

rose light through the curtains in the afternoons.


may it always be.and near the pines.

after a dry season

you will lift the piano lid


like a sunrise.

and small bouquets will arrive

for the recital.


mary angela douglas 14 january 2020