Ode To Persnickety Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

Some people have high ambition
To take a one way trip to Mars
To play at Carnegie Hall at three
As for me
I dream I dream I dream
Of putting the word persnickety into a poem
Together with perhaps persimmons, preserves
The princess consumed at the Palace pantry,
unobserved; or perhaps
were pondered plum wonderfully:
Particularities of providential paradigms
Which the voice typing feature on your laptop
Will hear as pair of dimes
As in you don't have a pair of dimes to rub together
But penury is not mine
As I persistently will find
That word persnickety, perpendicular to the roof of the world
I imagine it so unfurled
Im planting a pink peony flag on its puffy little planet
Right now.
mary angela douglas 30 july 2024