I THINK OF MONUMENTAL BEAUTY OFTEN

I think of monumental beauty often
of the rise and fall of cloud civilizations
the pink orange folds of the

drifting sheep and who will corral them in my sleep,
my thoughts, in the red clover meadows grazing
near clouded over Andromedas

while the school films drone on

I think of the histories of small pools reflective of
the cloud empires and how I want to live in
their green blue world

as though it could be a second and an emerald birth
with art deco sapphire accents
into coolness rippling out from the center

of small mirrors

where would I be today if I had studied assiduously
dates, treaties, the names of kings
I don't know

I remember swinging almost to the edge of clouds or at least, my sister did;to
their vast embroidered cities of loveliness tinted
like the earliest paintings of the Renaissance

then almost disappearing as if into the skies
as one vast pearl.


mary angela douglas 13 february 2018;22 june 2022