By mojave (mojave7299@yahoo.com)
Date: 13 March 2000

Annunciation

Hearing only the rain and the Mozart Quintet,
She stands before the mirror in the small room and
Combs out her hair and then holds it, head leaning to
One side, then does it again, thinking, The slow part
I love, the adagio largo lamentoso
Pianissimo cantabile... She does not think
Of him, there being no reason. For some time it
Has been this way: She hears the music and the rain
And nothing brings about an intrusion by
Anything else. The music is enough, but just
For now; she knows the spring will turn itself into
Summer by gradations of subtle miracles,
And the nights will deepen and she will sink into
Them like cool sheets. She will arise rested, burning
For new danger, for knowing again what she is.
"What a thing is man! I myself am man!" She says 
It all softly, her hair feeling to her fully
As soft as the violins, as the small of her
Back felt to her lover's hand on the night when through
His bedroom window they could see fireworks over
The parade ground two blocks away. But that is not
Now. She thinks, she speaks: "I myself am enough."