It's Startling To You Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

it's startling to you

though you may not say anything about it

that suddenly


as you were standing in a twilight patch

the pumpkin grew

into a coach lined with green silk


the stars grow milky above your head

was it something you said, at breakfast,

you wonder


that caused it all at once to thunder


and the clouds to become cerise.

you think about this as you can

concocting something out of it


stitched together with a particoloured thread

and you ask the micelike shadows.

was this real?


people will wag their heads.no matter what you feel.

everyone has their own perspective.

but you'll apprehend


a confettied particular wind

from some Divine directive


and the moon emerges from its hiding place

your face has the far away look

of the paintings, with the Madonnas


and the frocks in your closet from an Age before

glimmer without the candle being lit.


mary angela douglas 19 july 2019