Like Mary

Be like Mary.

She had seventy seven lovers

and never sinned

because she was only rehearsing

for the One she would

meet in the garden

of her breast.

As the planter takes up the hoe,

an artist his brush,

as a grandmother rests

the infant on her lap

and a courtesan unfolds her fan,
as a moth hides her wings

beneath blue lupine petals,

and Govinda lifts 

to his lips the hollow flute 

already full of Radha's 

trembling silence,

so let Jesus take up

the instrument of your body.

Become the music

you yearn to hear,
and dance to yourself.


Image: Mary Magdalene by Dante Gabriel Rossetti