Where are the angels, once discerning
With their innocent, unseeing eyes?
Luminous wings folded for disguise
They are leaving footprints on a cloud
Where angels are no longer allowed
By a decree of higher learning.
The quiet-throated angels walking
Wingless, stir the air slightly, hardly now
Felt on the forehead of judges, how
Dimly observed through teacher’s glasses,
The speakers pause, and something pauses…
How quickly they resume their talking.
Where are the angels? Now unwanted
They have been newly barred from flying
Low, where our ears can hear their sighing;
Still they come walking, silent, lonely,
Leaving uneven footprints only:
Some of us are still angel-haunted.
This piece appeared in the Fall 1947 issue of the student magazine Dimensions. Alison Kimball Bradford was the Delaware State Poet Laureate in 1961.