Leaving Small Kingdoms Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

leaving small kingdoms

where the gossip ripens along with the peaches

while you work in root cellars


while others hit the beaches

while you dream your winter dreams

and come apart at all the seams


and sow your tickets underground

and leave their worlds without a sound

maybe along some country road where


the skies are bursting with pomegranate stars and galaxies

you will make peace with your God

apart from all these anomalies


and remember in a fading hour

that once you too were flowers, earth

birdsong soaring above it all.


mary angela douglas 5 may 2020