Immaculate Conception

The annunciation must have put the lives
Of the bewildered couple into deep
Turmoil. If there was gladness, surely it
Must have been mixed with fear, and gnawing doubt,
And maybe irritation: Joseph can't
Have seen his wife in any other light
Than that of someone far removed from just
A soul mate, someone bright, exalted, high
And distant from the life he used to know -
A heavy liability. Who'd dare
Make love to such a one? Trapped in a plot
Of others' doing he still kept his troth,
And lived respectfully, to end a kind
But slightly laughable old man, and she
Must have thought back at times, remembering
The thoughts and hopes she'd had when still a girl
And all the dreams that she had never shared
With her sad husband, love not quite the same
As veneration. Holy, undefiled,
And gravely pensive she well understood
That glory ends in violence or fire
And never wondered at the awesome end
That finally befell her offspring. All
His miracles she took for gospel, like
A mother would, and from the very start
All she could do was keep things in her heart.