Getting the Message
It did not go as scheduled, as portrayed
by Giotto, Caravaggio or Rosetti.
No whiff of sanctity, no scent of lilies
hung in the room and there were no fine robes,
no extravagant feathers.
A girl in a plain shift was going about
her ordinary day when suddenly
a man came in abruptly, someone unknown
confronted her – staring with alien eyes.
Her throat went dry, the Roman soldiery
made free with girls. She knew that vagrants came
across the hills. Quickly she backed away
sensing a trap. Outside the mid-day street
lay dusty and deserted in the sun.
His bulk filled up the doorway – she well knew
that all she had of worth would be at stake –
no maidenhead, no man, no marriage moon.
And so she played for time, shedding salt tears,
pleading her youth but still prepared to make
rash promises to edge him through the door
leaving her unmolested. Did she think
a promise under duress would be void
who had agreed a ‘rent-a-womb’ with God?
It could have been done better had he told her
that though the future would not dry her eyes
she’d weep the crystal tears that icons weep
and wear a robe the colour of the sky
for all eternity.
Page(s) 44
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