MARY ON 

A USUAL DAY

Poem  for Today - Sunday - September 28, 2014

FROM A WOMAN’S LIFE

What Mary knew was just

enough for the usual day;

pull water, flint fire, bake

bread, smile, pray

the dark orations, sleep, wake

wait. When pain honed a nerve,

when birth or dying clotted

an hour, she leaned to the curve

of living, resilient to fear

laughter suffering.

Partings are a little death.
Each one’s journey is a thing.

Wholly without precedent.
She looked at the sky

For compass. None. She, too,

Created a road to travel by.

© Maura Eichner
in Upholding Mystery
An Anthology
of Contemporary 
Christian Poetry,
edited by
David Impastato,
Oxford University
Press, Oxford,
New York, 1997,

Pages 362-363