SALUTE (Before the statue of Our Lady of Peace in St Mary Major)

SALUTE

(Before the statue of Our Lady of Peace in St Mary Major[1])

The little lad brushed past me like a dart

thrown by some seraph lurking in the gloom

pushing the opal dusk apart

at arch and chiselled tomb;

where down the tall nave’s pillared road

bright Hymettus marble glowed

this little one

With sweet face bronzed by an Italian sun

came to a crisp halt where

a white madonna waited wistfully

for some small prayer,

or still word spoken to her Child

Who held an olive branch, and smiled.

With ritual of medieval knight

taut at attention, drawn to his full height,

this cherubic recruit

raised a small hand in swift salute

as it were meet

that he salute a lady in the street,

so now this Lady in the dusk-dimmed nave

beneath the multi-shadowed architrave.

But as he turned to go I saw him start

as at some little thought that bruised his heart –

had he heard what the blue winds said

of bitter steel wings overhead? –

Oblivious of discipline

this military mannikin

in one swift bound

climbed to her feet,

and heedless of the worshipper’s critique

leaned close across the rhythms of her gown

and laid a kiss upon her curved, cool cheek,

then scrambled down

and fleet

fled through the pillars to the Roman street.

As when a tired tree against a hill

is rinsed with sudden music and grows still,

so stood I spirit-shaken, pondering

the lonely wisdom of this thing:

not only in lip-rubric told with care

is power of prayer;

there is a luminous leaven

of silence more articulate to bless –

there are some things that must be torn from heaven

by tears and tenderness.

Sister M Thérèse SDS

Give Joan a Sword.  MacMillan. 1945. Used with permission

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[1] St Mary Major is one of the four patriarchal basilicas or churches of Rome.  Built in 352 AD, it was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in 435 AD.  Cf Page 48.