Glimmer Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

teachers tell me I have used this word too much
as if it could wear out
but there's no other word in English

for the light that glitters about which
you are not sure and could not answer
if the question were put to you

in front of the whole class:
What Is Its Source.
you'd swallow the gold

and keep a gilded silence
and yourself to yourself
knowing you cannot say:

from hidden kingdoms

a charged beam has strayed
and excaped certain tyranny revealing
that pathway of moonlight

across the counterpanes so that
children wander in a vast sleep
where every tree is...

everything they see is...
glimmering

mary angela douglas 2 february 2016