That Country Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

children will turn out with small bouquets
in their Sunday best
we will drink rosy punch and be festive

with the dolls
celebrating all the small
collecting blue marbles

with their encapsulated clouds
see, we have the captured the clouds:
the great expeditionary forces that we are

and we've only been reading a little while
forming our letters in the snow languages
bequeathed to us each Christmas

why are you writing this
say the lost critics not finding their footing
because of joy I pirouette and say

a Columbine's Columbine

because I like to remember old toys
and the Golden Age, time ticked off
with dime store watches

because I live in that country
and that country only.

mary angela douglas 1 august 2017