The Marmalade Measures Of The Sun Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

the marmalade measures of the sun
the coloured chalkboard summer sums
we thought were ours till kingdom come

the metronome's gaze

upon the musical page, gum starred
and this is Where You Are, on planet earth
the piano lid open to the neighborhood

small scars kissed new

and much imagined from the few notes graced,
the blosoming of the keys
when scales were young

the Dreamery of our
Grandmother's Liebestraum
I have kept in my box of charms

where the ballerina twirls
in her pink bit of tulle
and can't take arms

because of the Golden Rule

against the vanishing of iris skies
and all the shreds of hows and whys
we knew back then

the doll patch silk
the chocolate milk

when every wind through the screen door
chimed
and anything reminds me now

that was where
I lived somehow
the only place I ever would

though Time itself
has long since raced me
to the end of the block

mary angela douglas 24 july 2017