Initial Lament Inlaid With Opals Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

once there was turquoise and a silver sigh

a herd of dreams, no word for goodbye

once there was.


once there was snowdrift spun so fine

and I thought every day was mine

when I looked out on all the pines


all the pines.

while I was sleeping free from care

there came a noise upon the stair


there came a noise.

it promised peace and such ideals

a place to rest with all my meals.


all my meals. and I'd sell flowers from the fields.

how long ago that day seems now

when all my life without a row


they swallowed, swallowed whole somehow

when I went with a gipsy band

and left my mother and my grands


without our even knowing then

my lot was cast

but not with friends.


mary angela douglasa 20 april 2020