Geoffrey Philp

The Angel's Message

This was the last thing she'd expected
to hear, for she had seen her own mother
birthed into old age by so many children,
and a silent rage shuddered through her body.
Then the fear, would Joseph, her betrothed,
abandon her to the gossip of loose tongues
in the village that would one day, surely rise,
and tear her out of the story of her family, her people?
Was this shame worth the surrender of her pride?
But when the angel said he would be called
“Prince of Peace”, and she heard outside her window,
Roman soldiers nailing another cross to the sky,
before she could say the words, her heart stuttered
her reply for all her sisters who had wept for their sons,
their brothers, who had died too soon, and bowed
her head to the new life that filled her body with joy.

Mary
I have become a vessel, a handmaiden
of my Lord. He has emptied and filled me
with his spirit. Lifted me from the lowest
in my father's household, and made me, a simple
girl, a carrier of his word. I never asked for this
calling, but on some nights when the wind leveled
the stalks of wheat, heads bowed like the withered elders:
my parents and my grandparents, sowing seed,
growing crops, yet never reaping the harvest.
So, I take this yoke willingly and without complaint.
For so many times, I mourned in the dark
without knowing it, (only after did I feel the wetness
on my cheeks and breasts) when I thought about my sisters
and brothers, tithed and taxed into misery, and I prayed
for an end to suffering, to be an instrument of deliverance.
And the Lord answered my prayers, and made me his servant.

Cover Design: Joseph McNair