If I Had Written On A Stony Page Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

for Thomas Chatterton



if I had written on a stony page

on rose alabaster in Italian script and. in a distant age

so chiseled my heart

in a dream a song without words

who would sing it but a realm of birds

long since departed;

the currents of air above great elevations

but speculation fades, like wildflowers

on dark autumn's crest,

speculation which no star attends

and I am left to mend my words on earth

that may as well be flowers of frost or snow

that may as well be, for all I know.

mary angela douglas 15 july 2022