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| The Annunciation. Sandro Botticelli, 1489-90. |
The angel has already said, Be not afraid.
He's said, The power of the Most High
will darken you. Her eyes are downcast and half closed.
and there's a long pause - a pause here of forever -
as the angel crowds her. She backs away,
her left side pressed against the picture frame.
He kneels. He's come in all unearthly innocence
to tell her of glory - not knowing, not remembering
how terrible it is. And Botticelli
gives her eternity to turn, look out the dorrway, where
on a far hill floats a castle, and halfway across
the river toward it juts a bridge, not completed -
and neither is the touch, angel to virgin,
both her hands held up,both elegant, one raised
as if to say stop, while the other hand, the right one,
reaches toward his; and, as it does, it parts her blue robe
and reveals the concealed red of her inner garment
to the red tiles of the floor and the red folds
of the angel's robe. But her whole body pulls away.
Only her head, already haloed, bows,
acquiescing. And though she will, she's not yet said,
Behold, I am the handmaid of the lord,
as Botticelli, in his great pity,
lets her refuse, accept, refuse, and think again.
Hudgins, Andrew. "The Cestello Annuciation" Upholding Mystery: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Poetry. Ed. David Impastato, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 106-107.
