MAY

MAY

If this were not your month, my Mother, child

and Church would be your witness that the stars

are virginal as water; earth is aisled

with prophecy, and night with filial rays

of bright apocalyptic stars.  But May

is more: May is the child-created land

where every wilted, homely daisy spray

is for a Queen; May is the gold command

of new encyclical[ 1] on not-new truth.

May is the sound of Introit-jubilee. [2]

The unfulfilled fulfilled canon of youth;

is sleep at last; is joy in transiency

May hints eternity through blossom screen;

Mary is our folded hands in yours, dear Queen.

Sister Maura SSND

America.  1954

Used with permission

---

[1] The name given to a letter which contains a papal pronouncement.

[2] Introit: the entrance antiphon intoned before a priest celebrates the Eucharist.