I Smile Into Far Distances Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

why couldn't it be that way
the way we thought it would
that we would find our playhouse

in the woods like a fairy tale cottage
marked for us alone
and with the doll size baby tea set

done in small roses.
there we would remain the children
and mama the mama the mama

and grandmama grandpapa too
the worlds we knew at first
without the bubbles bursting

rainbow's sheen floating forever in the backyard
sunlight dappling everything.
I know somewhere it must be true

behind the gumball machines,
in the old shopping center,
inside the nesting worlds forever new

inside the present, yet another
star flecked tissue Christmas
evergreen as before.

you think I am naive
and you deplore that in me.
maybe you do

but I smile into far distances, queen,
anthropologist of the faint gold thumb printed clues.

mary angela douglas 15 january 2019