The Snow Sledge Drives Through Lacquered Lands (Substantial Revision) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

for Anna Akhmatova

the snow sledge drives through lacquered lands

through fairytale collapsed remands

and I have lost my way again

biting in half for sustenance

the raspberry chill of former syllables.

Anna Akhmatova: you are in my heart

but the Snow Maid's pastel musings still

could vanish overnight in any country where

darkness singes, mimics light since

beauty is always melting here on earth

and sometimes by decree.

Anna Akhmatova, you are in my heart

even though I am hardly Russian

and don't know why your

white flocks have been driven to

my door as though seeking shelter-

in every weather your especial Firebird gleams

fiercely above these scenes of quite human

distress where with each fresh travesty you

do need air to breathe and poetry

to remember who you are

in amethyst memoirs beyond all scars,

your cameo light

past all inquisitions;

your swans scatter, seeking they know

not what, they know not where;

consigned almost to classical despair

oh Anna Akhmatova

standing in the ruins or lifted, in

the snow-clouded hands of God-

mary angela douglas 9 september 2009; 15 august 2022; rev.9 march 2023; 17 may 2024