The Fairy Tale Not In The Corrected Editions Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

(in allusive reverence for Charles Dickens Fairy Tale "The Magic Fishbone"as concerning Present Time)


ah, my bent fairy tale

who will straighten your spine

correct your magic fishbone now

dare I wonder aloud in the milk white wood

in the season of misunderstood

this harvest of weeping pearl

half murmured to no crowd at all.

yet to the singular heart, a Throne

that's recognized.

be good then and don't.

that was the quote from the godmother dressed

in peach and pale silver far from the

census of what is allowed.

I will bury your treasure

in deep snow, forgoing all roses

forgetting all else I know

standing guard in white velvet.

that the children may not wander alone

without a single glimmer

vacant flowers in their eyes.

what is bending for sighed Light but for

jewel like refraction (as in rainbows)

wishes don't grow

on the tree of coercion

measuring your shadow's height

on the executioner's wall

ah, ah, my bent fairy tale. No.

not at all.


mary angela douglas 5 october 2018