The Annunciation
“Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.”— Luke 1:30-31
He brought two doves
and God’s seed
harked me to my
womb’s pilling:
I was Blessed as God
longed to be strewn in me.
Belly plowed holy
until I hulled a live miracle.
Gabriel reassures me,
Do not be afraid.
— How to tithe
the myrtle of my body
to a filigree
of God’s quiver?
I am not she.
“Are you not Mary?”
How to deny God’s pith?
Magdala, let me untangle
on your breast,
hip and hekhal.
A shekel of sun
-spill
mollusked
by my hands.
How to yank them apart
to prayer
-shaped tear;
and lie still.
*The Annunciation reimagines a young Mary of Magdala (Mary Magdalene) as the first choice of God to bear His Son.
The Unbearable Weight of Tidings
דָּבַק (dāḇaq)
CW: rape…Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out.
–Luke 8:2
Pray, he taunts:
Herd the body
to god’s scalloping
hands. I have reaped
and reaped this body
of its bleat,
twanged
its narrow eye
to lyre.
Shalom, Rabbi.
Shalom, Adonai —
Thy will be done,
dill-dank, myrrh
-miracled;
still I will stir
this brackish
bowl.
Talon tapping
this meleke
-breath
as she sifts the maw
for a twine
of your talus.
Thread my waters,
Abba —
Do you not hear her?
* דָּבַק (dāḇaq): Hebrew verb; to adhere or cling, where דיבוק dybbuk comes from.
דָּבַק (dāḇaq) is part of a series of poems retelling the story of Mary Magdalene.
Whirlwind of fleeing spirits
Cherub on the Kaporet
Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.— Exodus 20:3
Sinai, stretch-marked,
sifting beneath my one wing.
Gabriel calls it ambition.
Truth is, neither of us know.
(We know I have dreamt of her
in all four tongues.)
Picked acacias off
the half-moon of her calf,
moon-maned, tamarisk-dewed
language with legs.
Each whorl of your finger into stone,
I peer down the Mount
away from Moses’ head
prayer-hung; into her eyes,
Canaan, Canaan, Canaan.
My loamy longing.
Yahweh — how long
before I am found out, too —
Tzitzit-tasseled,
musk all the same?
Yoked to my own
golden calf?
Yahweh — pinion my flailing
ankled in sea-salt pining,
hurl me into the hard shells
of Gentile sea-parting.
Let us be, Scleractinian,
mouths; tentacled.
*According to Ezekiel and the Book of Revelations, Cherubim (singular Cherub) are winged heavenly creatures with four faces: lion, human, eagle and ox, representing the expansive nature of God’s rule. They are throne bearers of God who are on either side of the Mercy Seat (the lid placed on the Ark of the Covenant) from where God passed on the Ten Commandments to Moses. This poem is written in the voice of one of the Cherubim who falls in love with a Gentile girl.
Moon over Gentile love
Letitia Jiju has a penchant for imagist poems and retelling the divine & the mythological. Her poems have appeared/are forthcoming in Black Bough Poetry, Amethyst Review, Moist Poetry Journal, Acropolis Journal and Emirates Literature Festival. She serves as Poetry Editor at Mag 20/20. You can find her on Instagram/Twitter @eaturlettuce.
Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is an Indian-Australian artist, poet, and improv pianist. Her paintings have been featured on the covers of several journals including Amsterdam Quarterly yearbook, Pithead Chapel, Two Thirds North, and Stonecoast Review. She is a Pushcart and multiple Best of the Net nominee. She lives and works in Sydney on the traditional lands of The Eora Nation. Find her @oormilaprahlad and www.instagram.com/oormila_paintings
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