I Don't Care If The Castle Is Pink Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

I don't care if the castle is pink as ice cold sunsets
if the false queen reigns the one who
deceived the king
I don't care
if lilied ponds by the dozens
are arranged there
and an oven that can bake 10,000 loaves
at a time as delectable as cakes
I don't care;
if the children are sent into exile
their slates broken
and must feed on what they find,
in the wild;
tear the pink castle down
it is lurid among the strangled hills
and the songbirds fled
even before they could be banished
officialdom is that slow
at the first clip clop of the new bride
on horseback
and the horse reared over the drawbridge
almost causing a natural end
to all the woes to come.

mary angela douglas 7 may 2023