In Your Mind You Are The Most Beautiful Dancer Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

in your mind you are the most beautiful dancer
little girl, practicing in the corner your made up things
so that the whole world throws flowers at your feet

as you twirl and of course it's all the flowers in the world
even the ones you don't have names for yet.
and you think you're like a jewel box ballerina or

the one on the birthday cake of pink and cream.
and then you think of wedding cake dolls a little distracted
and wonder how would it feel to live on the top layer

with all that white frosting. silver beading.
sometimes you whirl to make yourself dizzy
thinking this must be the way they practice

and you make the steps you've seen in the
Easter grass and in your dress no longer clean
with its bright sash.

how long will this last your Grandmother wonders
that you will wander from dream to dream
jumping from stone to stone in a crystal creek

in the wilderness

eating strawberries, sewing a fine seam and then,
going to get ice cream, you always order the pink kind.
it's long ago in the long ago these things happened.

and you still daydream they're all flinging flowers at you
and you're up there in lilac toeshoes. a frothy tutu.
or waltz length, the best.

well, sometimes, you do!

mary angela douglas 4 april 2016