Still Life Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

still life.

a purple plum and a golden one

before a vase of summer sky blue

still life

but nothing in the world is still

I wonder why the earth is ill

and quiet beauty has unease.

still life.

dark cherries in a bowl of jade

and I have lost the summer shade

and gilded sunbeams on the page

of a book I had not read for an Age

still life.

but nothing on earth is still today

except the words i have to say

the letter I won't write today

still life

becomes.

a violet plum and a golden one

and I have lost the summer sun

against the promises I was made.

still life.

becomes.

mary angela douglas 5 february 2023