Our Lady of Guadeloupe

Once upon a time,

Opening her white robe,

Revealing the virgin-blue dress,

Revealing the full womanly body of the virgin-mother,

Mary spilled the roses upon the frozen ground,

Blessing them with her spread hands, palms upward,

Looking in wonder at the abundant roses

As they spread upon the frozen ground.

And we, in the person of Juan Diego,

Bent, knelt to gather the roses,

Seeing ahead our meeting with the clerics

Whose cynicism and skepticism

Would buckle and crumble

On the rectory floor. 

--December 13, 2013