Mary, can we talk?

You sang your magnifying song
in present tense, with “is” and “is”
relieved, just here and there, by a “has done.”
Did all this grace go by, or is it still to come?

For truly Mary, as your soul rejoices still,
and as a planet calls you blessed,
the generations still cry out for mercy and
relief from our unholy strife and greed.

The arrogant are scattered only in
imagination and in heart-felt hope.
The powerful are happy on their thrones;
the lowly wonder when they will be lifted up.

The hungry still are hungry while the rich
are filled with comfortable certainty.
A servant nation – any servant nation – shrouds
the light of love with its “my people first.”

So Mary, can we talk, unhindered by
the sobs and weeping of the world?
Can I obtain your voice of confidence
without the growth of grace within?

If not, then let me sit here at your feet
a while to shut my eyes and listen to
your song that magnifies the LORD
rejoicing in our God, our Savior.

A poem/prayer based on Luke 1:46b-55, the Revised Common Lectionary Alternate Psalm Reading for Year B, Third Sunday of Advent.

The Virgin in the Garden by Unknown Master, German (active in 1490s in the Upper Rhineland) – Web Gallery of Art:   Image  Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15465829.