A little girl in her little bed at night,
soft glow from a nightlight,
Virgin Mary made of glass,
stands upon a red rose.
The only color in the figurine.
She studies the face of beauty.
She falls asleep peacefully.
A teenage girl,
young and restless,
a blossoming red rose within her own heart.
Mary watches over contentedly.
A woman in her 20s,
No time for figurines and little dreams,
Babies arrive,
The pain of labor,
The tribulations of adulthood,
Trauma upon trauma,
She forgets her own childhood,
She grows stronger but she also grows hard,
Stone within.
Time passes,
No longer in love with the image,
Instead feeling competition,
less than perfect,
less than ideal,
less than noble,
less than all that is lovely,
Contempt settles deep within a heart of stone.
An older woman visits Carrera,
wealthy American tourist,
She sees the marble,
Walks the lonely hallways of vast Italian museums,
A son and daughter now grown and far from home.
Her own mother dying of old age,
Her own mother unfailingly loved Mary,
She approaches the Pieta with bitterness and disdain.
She looks at the face,
Not the beauty,
Not the grace,
Not the perfection,
She looks at the sadness,
She looks at the mother holding her son,
Looks at the quiet grief,
Looks at the way he is held,
Looks at every little minute detail carved into solid punishing marble,
Sons of miscarriage,
Sons of war,
Sons stillborn,
Sons cut down early before their mother,
Her own mother is dying,
Her brother born still so many years ago,
The silent agony,
Her mother had never forgotten nor forgiven the cruelty,
The old woman reflects on her own child too,
Her son.
Love at first sight,
Love as a little girl,
Love without understanding.
Love renewed,
Love as an old woman,
Love with understanding,
It's not the image, it's what's inside the image,
It's a life of pleasure and intense silent suffering and pain.
She studies the face,
She studies the eyes,
She studies all,
Every little feature,
And slowly her own heart of marble softens,
She loves differently,
but it is love just the same,
Empathy,
Compassion,
Sympathy.
Love at first sight.
About the Creator
Janea Speer
Janea writes interesting fiction in the evenings as her hobby. She goes by the name J. Speer on Amazon where she sells 5 small books currently.
Keep reading
More stories from Janea Speer and writers in Poets and other communities.
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.