LET US RETURN TO THE COUNTRY OF CLOUDS

let us return to the country of clouds I

said to myself when you were gone

as you said, everything is changing

in the clouds. it's always changing


(but not my heart)

in the country of clouds there are kingdoms, cities,
of changeable hues and turrets of cream and towers
of all the angels God ever made, of a silken

whiteness gilded with sun-driven colors

in my dream I returned to the country of clouds
finding everything unchanged.

mary angela douglas 8 november 1997