St. Anne's Oratory
By Philip C. Kolin – Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA - 29 November 2011
Across the red waves
Of my womanhood
I was the sea for His ark.
Twice He sealed
His covenant with me.
My mother, caught in the iron maws
Of the law before me
Then my daughter sinless after.
There in that fertile
Hill country
Angels came early
To my house.
Before Scripture
Had written it down
I stirred
At her Magnificat.
And in the temple
We gave her virginity
For God's dowry.
She sat on my lap,
My Mater Dei, flesh
Of my flesh,
Embroidering a lily
While I stitched a thorn.