What Would The Tomato Pincushion Dream, Hans Andersen? (Final Version) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

what would the pincushion dream, Hans Andersen?
to be stabbed with GOLDEN pins?
to fall in love with a thimble.

my lady's thimble, made of garnet glass,
the only one in the kingdom.
or maybe the whole display of thread
at the box store:

the Coats and Clark spectrum
jewel like in array, the rainbow-spooled.
dizzy with colours would the pincushion lose

its balance? would it long to be threaded with light-
to become: oh impossible,
the embroidery of the moon and stars instead?

or mantled like a king with ah!
all the flowers
beyond its tomato station
readied for coronation.

mary angela douglas 28 january 2015; 10 november 2023