The Year The Fairs Were Cancelled Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

the year the Fairs were cancelled
we rode air balloons and imagined the trains unloading
angels for the trapeze

taffy pulls, with the clouds turning into sticky candy.
the green trees swayed anyway
somewhere children played on the swings

and predicted their weight in jellybeans
the weight of feather light years to come'
we still will be the candy striped nation

in love in love with the ferrised skies

and butterflies launched their investigations.
I remembered the Monarchs, their stained glass colour
of orange

and orange pop in glass bottles when I was knee high
to the cicadas
will there be jam

I wonder to myself; wildflower honey and cheese on apple pie
and all the children in new storybooks boosted sky high
when their mother's turn the page and offer blueberries,

the last of the summer.

how will we gauge the maples in their red showering
and will it really be October then
let the pinwheels blow in the autumn winds

and we'll tape sparklers to our old bicycles
just to show we still believe

in thinking wasnt it wonderful flowers could fly
with the cabbage butterflies low sailing by
the ferris will launch again our autumnal aspirations
and we will eat the funnel cakes fried

and the caramel applies
inside dreaming it all over again
flower petaled in the fireworks.

mary angela douglas 5 august 2020