Art in the Christian Tradition: Artist Wesley Frank
Poem to Our Lady of the Wayside:
the queer little not-girl revisits their childhood church. Poem by Avery Arden
“you changed. too much you changed” they accuse
without speaking to me
and they gawk
without meeting my eyes.
in the windows your robes
and your son’s
are far too gilt
to be yours,
your skin too white,
too smooth. hairless.
callous-less. Mary, where
are the dirt and sweat
of the rugged roads
your blistered feet trudged out?
what are these false eyes
pale as standing water
where brown eyes deep as rich earth
dark as the secret grove
should be?
those glass eyes stare off
into something too distant to be
the Kin(g)dom of
a skin-swaddled God
a beggar’s flaking palms
a cast-off seed.
but
Maria della Strada,
in your corner you see —
you see — me!
their backs are to you, too.
Mary, Mother
of the long and potholed road
no one bothers to patch
Mary, Mother
of refugees and castoffs
of crumbling wayside shrines
that only bruised knees discover
let me sit with you as you nurse
God’s hungry, toothless mouth
and i will gather wildflowers
to crown your unwashed hair.
On the Web site "Binary Breaking Worship" Avery Arden writes this powerful and beautiful reflection after mass when finding refuge near the statue of Maria Della Strada (Our Lady of the Wayside), the words that tell the story of this poem are equally worth the read, I encourage everyone to go to the link above and read more from this site. Thank you to Avery for sharing this important message.
