No Other Song Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

how I wish that I could have translated into one searing valentine

the blurred heart stung obscenties of the man this evening

standing confused in the middle of our hallway with the speech impediment

of thick lava and remorse standing

as if he were at a four way stop where all the stoplights went blind

and I know he was trying to reach Heaven like a black dove

with something childlike in his heart to say why why do they turn away

but he didnt have the words the way

with the marbles in his mouth from birth no way of forming eligible syllables

to reach the angels the citizenry and so I cry but my cry also is a ragged ragged impression

fading away

compared with his sublimity his

childlike cosmic way of turning a mangled phrase his soul- like the orphanhood

of a world within him his words striking my heart like a gong

until finally i can hear no other song.



mary angela douglas 22 april 2021