Annunciation

Robin Robertson

after Fra Angelico

He has come from the garden, leaving

no shadow, no footprint in the dew:

They hold each other's gaze at the point

of balance: everything streaming

towards this moment, streaming away.

A word will set the seed

of life and death,

the over-shadowing of this girl

by a feathered dark.

But not yet: not quite yet.

How will she remember the silence

of that endless moment?

Or the end, when it all began --

the first of seven joys

before the seven sorrows?

She will remember the aftersong

because she is only human.

One day

she'll wake with wings, or wake

and find them gone.