The Rains Are Sweeping The Canyons While We're All Inside Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

beautiful canyons spanned the distance

but we were all at work.

at school.


in the laundry rooms.

watching tv.


what if it had been different

what if we hadnt kept our heads down

when the Perseids showered


their gold for free.

what if freedom was for beauty.


playing the mandolin

under the moon.


what if candy cane deliberations

in the Christmas drug stores

at the last minute, while the snow flew


had meant everything always.

and the Nativity.

set in the window


with its yellow bulbed star

its radiance

and the beauty


spanning the distance

had been

where we lived


instead of just

keeping our heads down.

taking someone else's word for it


taking one test in the row

and passing the rest down soundlessly

when the silver rains swept through;


motionless. registering only


all the second hand things we knew.

or were expected to.


mary angela douglas `12 april 2019