The Afterlife Of Hans Christian Andersen Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

As if it were not impossible things occur to you now

More vividly than before

Children stitch their shadows together so as to not be lost

In a farther chapter

And where a princess was thought to have disappeared from

view

The hills shine crystal and crystal transmogorified

And sea anemones are such a deeper shade of cornflower blue

Than even you in second sight sought

To make them

Things occur to you and it seems more startling somehow

The charm of the stories seeping through into the lives of

seraphs now

And the glorified who had forgotten home and weep now almost

inconsolably

For the way the stories unfolded then

Where the wind rustled the pages of books

As though they were roses.

And beauty withstood the fusillades of time

Opening the windows all around

To the lake effect snows of dream

mary angela douglas 28 june 2024