Assumptions of the Virgin
– Art Institute of Chicago
Cast in light as bright as rococo gilt
that frames and bears her upward
on the crescent moon’s shining blade,
El Greco’s untouched Virgin rises
from the mouth of opened stone
she’s slipped—away from earth and toward
the arch of gold-domed Heaven
where properly reverential angels wait.
But somewhere down the dim lit hall,
Our Lady of forgotten corners and the unnamed
sculptor, Mary of the marble gaze, Virgin
of the chipped away and what remains
assumes her stance: arms outstretched
to balance on her shattered toes, her time-grimed face
alert as if to catch the crack and crash of falling
rock, the silent rising of the dust—one
weary cherub crushed beneath her ruined hem.
– christina lovin