It Is Night In The Emerald City Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

it is night in the Emerald City
I don't know why I am writing you
this letter
the green stars shine ahead
but is this cause for celebration?

there are multitudes onstage
but no one in the audience
and we were standing
so magically by

in April's dappled shade:
waiting for the cue to go on.

yet birds still trill
and in the stillness
golden poems are launched.

who will christen them,
will you?
at night in the Emerald City
it's so hard to sleep

they are codifying everything.

I'm burning down the corner
of another unknown page:
here's fuel for a winter's instant!
last evening from my window
I heard the starry sonnets muted
and

bright visions so indicted
that I wept tears of emerald.
I don't know when they'll
banish this

it could be soon
but I loved you
from universal distances
in God's own grace and conversation
I'm certain you'll remember
we're not locked inside this maze.

performances are overbooked
at night in the Emerald City
you have to call ahead

all iridescence is forbidden
I can't weep tears of emerald

I just watch the stars,
not the regime

down to the last bright ember-

mary angela douglas 7 february 2009