There Should Be Faces Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

why is the land so green
and yet it seems no least seed grows
that's planted

where else are we to go
or are the parables inverted
we always heard

I will go
with the first snows
telling what I know

into God's pearl perfect ear
and wondering
what is it I have managed to fear

is it the zeros of the hours
the castoffs from the uniform towers
is the least word wasted

where You are

though it branches and flowers ceaselessly
while I pin the patterns to an empty space,
basting the stars.

who are you were you I whisper
to my dissolving soul and should we hasten
as if we know

as if it were made of candle ends

and we the surveyors on the road
barely scavenging
where all I say just disappears

and leaves no trace
just a blankness where
there should be faces

the singular lanes of angels
and shining.

mary angela douglas 5 march 2018