The Imperial Light Of Thomas Alva Edison Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

the imperial light of Thomas Alva Edison encouraged our minds

and made us happy to learn about science early in grade school
so that later the Wizard of Menlo Park became at sleepy times
the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
except that the technicolor on black and white teevee
blurred our understanding for awhile
that a million and one experimental failures
coloured it all in emerald green the shamrock colour too

be more than lucky in what you do, try hard

our parents, our grandparents urged

the light of the heart will help you
stand in a green light then oh child and
then in an imagined pink one
for George Washington's cherry tree
just about to bloom when he chopped it down

well we knew the story of Lincoln trudging for miles

through the heavy snows and cold

to borrow just one book from a neighbor

to be read by firelight back home in the log cabin

beautifully illustrated

George Washington Carver who gave us the blessing of

peanut butter (with jam) on our sandwiches

for sure we loved him for it
and some or all of this comprises the storybook land
of the lives of heroes fictional or real
written for us in special children's biographies
so that we would also be inspired
To Do Great Things in the space age
and be hired by Wonder
our readers full of flatboats and the winds

of Grace, the hardships of the human race

Fulton's folly and all things jolly
and the beautiful jinns of fable, the flickering twinkle
lights about the fir and balsam on winter silent nights
or classroom chrismed with the construction paper chains

we glued and looped ourselves garlanding our small tree

day before Christmas vacation classroom butter cookies

such a spree, in shapes of the star, the bell trimmed

with silver beads
or we were fitted with angels wings and taught to sing
God's glory for it all and page by page enthralling!
the cranberry skeins of the skies. out on the blizzarding
prairies we surmised and the plains before our eyes arose
the hoedowns and the johnny cakes sustained
I will of this muddled, medlied happy world a poem make
I said and taking the syrup down from an ancient shelf
I breathed in the maple sugar of it all
and lived, as Ray Bradbury said, as I always will,
Forever. You do the same.

mary angela douglas 20 september 2022; 22 february 2023