Make It All Turn Out That Way Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

it should have been the letter to the king

I dropped in the tisket or tasket

in the green and yellow basket



in the thrush bright spring

with seven kinds of sealing wax

banded with gemmy rainbows



buttercups, someone said

under the chin.



and someone would have found it

wrapped it up in tissue

and sent it on right then



because we dreamed it that way

everytime we were swinging into the clouds

and Grandmother said, come in girls,



it's going to rain.

then we were going to live in a house

with rose patterned wallpaper



and a thin green stripe

another of pure silver on each panel.

but the letter wasn't delivered.



I dont know what happened that day.

call it fate, an unsatisfactory story.

but we still dream of glory;



morning glory, stay



and in the retelling,

make it all turn out that way.



mary angela douglas 20 june 2019