CAROUSEL CANDY APPLED

(To my Grandmother Lucy, my Mama "The Princess
and to my sister Sharon on her birthday...)


you can't live on the carousel forever
I could imagine her saying
when I was candy appled
with the stars nearby
when our yard at home
seemed to me more favorable
than any country yet born.
who knew then how ribbons would fend
or the small cologne we bought
at the drug store to be rose imbued.
at the cotillions.
or a small notebook, and a green pen
to write in green oh evergreen words again: oh
what is this round trip in time
with no ticket station
I would ask my nation
of dolls and there would be a pause
and they would say so many surprising things.
gather our gemstone rings of glass
from the gum machines at last we know what Song is for
and we won't be dissuaded from picking up
blue jay feathers from the ground
and the Arkansas milky quartz I found, I felt was like a pearl edged sky
when I was a little girl wearing velvet

and the color why
and like the littlest angel from a tale at Christmas told
we'll keep it in our pockets so we won't grow old
these souvenirs from earth
so when the sheep are folded in the emerald fields
and the last tinted sunset peals
we won't feel at all alone.

mary angela douglas 19 august 2019;22 june 2022