The Story Behind The Story Keeps Unwinding (Revised) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

(theme for the ballet)

the story behind the story keeps unwinding
still we cannot see
what's behind the trees behind the trees

behind the trees
is this the enchanted wood
or is it the fairytale doom you've been led to

by the offstage voices in the ballet
and are you dancing in your red slippers
farther away or is it will o' the wisp a

somewhere else, another place and time where
where still you wander en pointe and try to find
past someone's pricked finger on the brier, or
or yours on the spinning wheel spindle ungarded,

the heart's desire,
a sign of life to come, an upwards flight of stairs
into a cloud
or are you the only only wandering there

and will true stillness ever appear
to the heart disconsolate
was asked of the vanished years;
I asked, the falling snow but it just kept
dtifting...

mary angela douglas 23 april 2015; 17 march 2016; 1 december 2023