Round Trip With Emeralds Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

in your summer versions of the yellow brick road
you don't anticipate the snow among the poppy fields
that kind of deliverance
that it may be necessary

to work the will as a not so oiled machine
in service of the heart that's barely learned to tick
oh let us be wicks together in the emerald world
lit by the grand imagination of a storm induced dream

and gleam ourselves in the finale as though we were citadels
of the light putting the witches of despondency to flight
in favor of the beautiful, the beckoning that we have slowly, circuitously learned

is the endless return to ourselves
we must be shown; braced for the unexpected departures
in trepidation and in grace,
through this strange round trip toward Home

that nothing was ever wasted.and that we were not alone.
mary angela douglas 21 august 2021