Unexpected Radiances Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

the tragic creeps through a different keyhole than this

said alice carefully in my half dream

that comes and goes with the roses



what if ive read the wrong directions


or if I put the key in wrong so that it halfway turns

on a dungeon song


let me think it through she implored the clouds


floating over

the ruined battlements where the violets peeked through

how does time elapse in dreams, in you


do we collapse in colours painting the living stream

ourselves or


it flits from scene to scene

dissolves with no conclusions

find the slipstream through


to the garden where the birds sing

an interrupting music you are glad for.

yet the tragic creeps through


the least crevice, cornice seeping

down to the willows river strewn

and this is my half finished tune


through the same crack could come

all glorious the morning sun

in rose and amber


could roses clamber over the stone

and we cup the iris moment in our hands,

momentously


no way said the schoolmaster to elude the gloom

in the play

when the heroes are struck down this way


but I, said alice in my alice blue gown

learned better.

it's all deceiving weather


on the darkest day

pooled in your vast dear tears

the key in the lock could


click into unexpected radiances.


mary angela douglas 22 december 2019