Mother Mild
Madonna col bambino
By Piero della Francesca (1472-74)
The child sleeps.
Plump, pink, a soft weight
in maternal arms.
Afternoon light
laces marble floors
with layered shadows,
mild breezes swelling
diaphanous veils
that shelter the shady room.
The hours pass in honeyed silence,
yet she hears the thunder, faintly,
sees down months and years
to a day become dark,
trembles, slightly,
at the sudden coolness
as she and babe wait for night
in shadows that point
to Golgotha.
Madonna col bambino
By Piero della Francesca (1472-74)
The child sleeps.
Plump, pink, a soft weight
in maternal arms.
Afternoon light
laces marble floors
with layered shadows,
mild breezes swelling
diaphanous veils
that shelter the shady room.
The hours pass in honeyed silence,
yet she hears the thunder, faintly,
sees down months and years
to a day become dark,
trembles, slightly,
at the sudden coolness
as she and babe wait for night
in shadows that point
to Golgotha.