Aren’t there annunciations… in most lives?
— Denise Levertov
So here we are again, Mary,
you, me, and the ordinary
day scrolling out in front of us.
I check my phone for messages.
You greet your angelic guest,
dismiss him with a quiet “yes,”
and we get back to business,
the floor unswept, the house a mess,
as if the sky hadn’t shattered,
as if the things that once mattered
still do in the face of your wild dream.
How lovely, how young he seemed,
the boy who stepped in and read your heart
while we practiced our ordinary art.
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell is a writer, poet, and professor at Fordham University in New York City where she teaches English, Creative Writing, and American Catholic Studies. She also serves as Associate Director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies. O’Donnell is a graduate of Penn State University and holds a Master’s and Ph.D. in English Language & Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Still Pilgrim Recounts Another Annunciation is from her book, Still Pilgrim: Poems.