Scanning Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

[to God My Father from a dubious kingdom]


I carried Your universe in my mind
through long years
walking in winter's shade.

the winter sun shone
like icon gold whenever the cadence
of icicled stars so brightly sounded

but veneration slept
and could not be wakened.
I saw the tears of angels freeze,

their stunning incapacity-
and seraphs of every nation leave the room
too brokenhearted

when the chrism of sheer poetry was voted down
by those who should have known better.
I saw the altar of numbers

and how nothing was
accounted for

there

and scant children cryng
for the loveliness departing,
kissing their outstretched

fingers, as though for the last time:
'come back! '
there were warriors

who fought against a cold and
impeccable emptiness
and could not win.

now ice has settled
over all of them
as in the Snow Queen's parlour

and we are wasted, waiting there
for one more performance review;
counting on You, just you, to know:

the fugitive heart still scanning
after all this snow-

mary angela douglas 4 january 2009