Turning Pink Hydrangeas Blue Or Vice Versa Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

turning pink hydrangeas blue the newspaper caption read,

depending on the soil (it said) ..., but in my head a childhood quandry solved for once and all


when my sister and I running out of things to do


that summer pondered the question, philosophically too:

always the pink or blue, the dress, the velvet shoe,

the ribbon in your hair


which o which to wear

that was the summer of Disney's Sleeping Beauty

remember when the seats were plush velvet


and air conditioned cool the downtown theatre in humid Arkansas

the popcorn strewn, the real Coke syryp over ice

and expectation grew


preceded by cartoons, the Main Feature...


the fairies could not decide either!

and so, they concluded

both are best


and kept turning the dress

from blue to pink

from pink to blue


you know the rest


while she was dancing

Aurora woken from dreams.

and still it seems to me


the best solution

the pink titration or the blue

depends on whom you're talking to


perhaps a little tinted by the mood you're in

don't have to see the competition through

when blue can be changed to pink


and pink to blue. in a twinkling

whenever there is magic in your thinking.


mary angela douglas 8 june 2019