ANNUNCIATION WITH GRANDMOTHERS
1.
First, her mother prayed No
but there was nothing
she could do. All along
she knew.
She watched
the angel announcing,
heard her daughter’s consenting.
2.
Many things cannot be told:
What it’s like to fall in love
(though the poets try)
To hold your child
To feel the pressure
of the hand of god
To die
3.
I can feel the pressure
of the mothers’ hands.
When I awaken in the night,
afraid of how my life will be,
how hard my death,
I hear them,
see them in the shadows
a spiral that will hold
from the first light’s song
to the long winding home.
GladErrand 