“Audrey Carolina”

Kingdom of glass, like strands of sand

Whose paper leaves, if heaven’s hands

Bless her isle of grass, sunsets tin can

Moonlight pearl inland, harmonicas eclipse

Left adrift and distant, kissed by wishes

Evermore children, lipstick fizz of awry lisps

Audrey Carolina, California of endless wisps

Alone with invisible spirts, springtime an infant

Descendant of facelessness, gardened by plymouth

To inheritance dreamless, angels but unfinished

Like stalks of porcelain that scream into wind,

Their horizons chalk which calcified uncleansed,

As nothingness aged did so barren, unscathed

Lay clay fingerprints and rusted copper rain,

A bloodless sanguine, roses of ash, of grey cranes

Origami horses once mâché, of earthenware chess pieces unplayed

Nectar its elixir, birthed from unmet pray

Were clouds phosphorous, skies become cage

Death a panacea for afterlife in-exchange,

As mortal and pestle martyr indifferent,

Whose saintless pain forbade forgiveness,

Evangelized by mirrored smoke, demons unnamed

Aflame within pages of tomorrow yet unwritten

Marred embers of bone marrow unless sinless

So wildflowers of electrical wire blossom, bloom red

Twinned pellucid, snake a crescent-shape moonstead

As dollhouses of balloon, locust bark, honeycomb rest

Where shellfire autumn, overcasts of peppercorn brimstone undress

Of graveyard thistle, reeds aluminum or plastic

Before yards of streetcars if iron forest

Run ersatz jackals, foxes of cardboard

Surfing ink-ribbon, tide marshaled grape concord

Awoken fugue, her persimmons jade and emerald

Forever oceania, so today will youth be azure blue.

© 2025, A. M. D’Angelo