Who Has The What O'clock In Fairy Tales (Final Version) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

who has the what o'clock in fairy tales?
it's rarely said;
the silver deadline looms

often by daybreak
so you pull an all nighter
as if in school

but you live in a place
where the clock without hands
appears and disappears

as if you were in a Bergman film
or the dream that preceded it
or the black rimmed clock in school

with giant numerals and the scarlet weeping
second hand stops for hours
at 3: 15 pm and freezes there

a good lone while before school
is let out at 3: 20

and you haven't guessed the riddle yet
or you have and later in the evening after supper
you'll realize your first answer was correct
and you shouldnt have erased it

you follow directions closely when
retrieving rubies for the dwarves,
the crones, the somethings in disguise.
and you grow wise. or remain the simpleton

the goose girl in search of her geese.

the children chime.
they want to hear the story
one more time
or you are lost in the woods

with no guardian angels wingprints on the snowclad air
though you've searched everywhere
where the tick tock of the soul
is just bewildering;

or not in sync with the time machine
you land in the countryside brimful of strawberries
but stuck inside
sorting the peas from the ashes
for the whole tribe

or refurbishing peach sashes
for the stepsisters
and spinning the straw to tearstained gold

when it all comes back to you in stunning detail
giotto's frescoes washed in vermillion and blue
after you're so footsore you can hardly stand

for any portico's view you just remember

you were in that land, and spoke all afternoon
but now you're in a contrary place
and can't figure out the human race
determine who's friend or foe

still God knows.
He hasn't forsaken you.
he let's you find

the magic stewpot
so that you won't starve
and leads you through
the picture puzzle

with no sky
without a single reason why
through grace
through blinding grace.

mary angela douglas 29 june 2015; 27 december 2023