Not like Barocci’s kneeling pink-cheeked girl
(who’d be afraid of her?) with white lace wings
that gazes up at Mary with a smile…
No, warrior Gabriel had frightened kings
and generals when he appeared: “Fear not!”
had been his necessary words to all.
More likely it was Mary fell prostrate
as holy light threw shadows on the wall,
and words that she was blest and would give birth
without knowing a man clouded her mind.
To Joseph came the same confounding truth:
an angel in a dream said he would find
her pregnant without sex. The angel’s word
from God caused them to accept the absurd.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, December 27, 2012
Views from the Edge 