CRACKING THE MOLD THEY MADE FOR YOU

[for Judy Garland]


cracking the mold they made for you

and the little box of stars-
a voice made of everything living

spends all its diamonds

in one song
and still has more:

carved from a nightingale quarry-

outdistancing by many rubies
anyone else's rainbow;

we're opening now, a box of sky
cloudy and bright

reconstituting everything submerged and
packed in lies you're

pealing out your perfect time in Time

above all those
who couldn't repair

the sheen beyond blue

of the bluebird soul
savaged by idiots...

but she's in scarlet or in gold

and it's all holiday astonishment again-
and building the ship around her as she sings

breath by breath till breathless in the end-

notwithstanding-
shout Hallelujah! for the

rose-bright flare of song illuminating

more than was contracted for-
I am sure:

unique as a sunset thumbprint rainbow-ridged

perpetual as dreaming could ever be made to
be in sepia or technicolored.

you're all apart-

rebuilding a burnt-out nest
on every stage

till it shone

like a gold never seen
in the land of let's pretend:

a metasong sailing into space

becoming only you - yourself-

where is the place for us

and all our encores
broken from the stem

like the home you made for music

all along?

the seam in the earthquake shifts

and is never the same

mary angela douglas 22 september 2011