Mandelstam In Dephenium Twilight; The Painting Of The End Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

the streets there paved with blind pearl
how sure they were I had lost my way
that all my chasms had been cancelled

the Lyceum razed
the door to higher mathematics locked.
the chalkboard filled with the odd phase

scoffed they did at my scuffed shoes
my lightsome tardy ways
the tropical unexpected honey of my phrase;

losing the key to the party, reprobate;
the raspberry fizzing of former days
and the stray dog kicked

and wandering in a carollinian forest
out of place, sans hope:
sensing vast carillions, and the guillotined

at sunset. their angled periscopes.

why will you insist on my ghosthood
when I am opalescent still I wanted to say
but it grew late, even trembling;

against my will.

I knew I could find the beautiful
if I just dreamed longer...
suddenly, a loud noise in the kingdom

and words flew off in a covey
the colour of sand.
I am not who you think I am

and these are not my wounds
but yours cried I into
the waning day the frosted heart

no longer rhythmic..."I am music...! "

then God replied, in stars.

mary angela douglas 22 february 2018