Fairy Godmother

Forgive me if I do not bestow
the usual gifts of riches and beauty.

I would rather grant stillness in your life
for regarding small things:

the angle of a wren’s tail, for example,
or the slow flowering of lichen,

a quietness in your heart
allowing you to notice snowdrops

lighting the darkness under an apple tree,
how at 4pm on the last day of January

wet sand is the colour of a robin’s egg,
how a single bluebell has no smell

but a bluebell wood has a cold fragrance,
how an olive leaf is like a silver fish,

and a severed cypress bract
is the green foot of a hummingbird.

May you be watched over
by the god of simplicity –

a piece of smooth beach glass,
an ermine-moth on muslin,

a god who brings joy at the sight of a daisied meadow,
who shows one palm leaf waving while others are still,

and offers calmness
to watch the healing of a snail’s broken shell.

Ann Kelley