FORMALITIES

 

I'm no Christian but I've seen

Many Annunciations -- hundreds of them;

Maybe thousands. Mary is rarely the same

Her hair is red or yellow or brown or black;

Curly, straight, braided, pinned,

Covered by a plain cloth, elaborately turbaned

She is surprised, frightened, bored, submissive,

Patient, impatient, worried, serene;

Keeps on reading or puts her book aside 

(Marking her place with a flower,

A leaf, a finger or -- at least once --

A pair of shears.) Sometimes she's gardening

Or cleaning or daydreaming. She sits, she stands,

She kneels to the angel who kneels also

Or doesn't.  The angel is alone or has brought

A companion or two or entire hosts of angels

With discrete wings or huge ones, white

Or falcon-striped or bright enough

To embarrass a peacock. They stand

Wrapped in silence or play instruments

And dance in the sky. The announcing angel

Approaches humbly, arrogantly, gravely, 

Or with the jaunty air of a favored suitor.

Now, though, comes something different --

A silent angel, poking before him a document

Triple-signed and notarized -- some sort of contract

Or decree. I was a lawyer so I know something

About notaries -- a precise and prickly lot

Who delight in procedural niceties. Where, then

Did the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost

Find IDs to show the notary? Were difficulties made

About Christ's age? ("Yes, I understand-- 

Co-extensive with the universe -- but when,

Exactly, were You born? Some time next winter? 

.... So. So. So. Ah! Can I speak for a moment

With Your Father?")