OCCUPATION

 

When the Annunciation Angel drops by, Mary

Is often depicted reading a book though

When most of these pictures were painted

Female literacy wasn't common. Still, I suppose,

She needs to be shown doing something --

Something that can be gracefully set aside

With perhaps a flower hastily put as a mark

In a story she'll never return to. She could, perhaps,

Have been shown making puppets but that

Might seem  a bitter commentary on her fate.

Juggling dishes or eggs? Opportunities enough

For an ingenious painter but think of the crash

If the angel startled her! Or, if she caught her eggs

Or dishes or (if she'd rare talent in the juggling line)

Her eggs and her dishes, where to put them down?

It won't do for her first words to God's messenger to be

"Here -- hold these for a moment, would you?"