Gently illuminating a story long important to civilization, poet Shanley McConnell grants readers a glimpse of Mary and the birth of her son. At the same time, however, the foreboding of what is to come is highlighted, as well as what has already happened in those early days of Christendom. “Mary sings a lullaby to her baby God” is a poem of memory and love, but it is also a poem of foreshadowed loss and violence.
Mary sings a lullaby to her baby God i. In the beginning, earth spawned a lake of fruit. An apple led men to war. A pear, the colour of virgin purity, tucked grief into her garments, whispered hush to the first breath of her baby God. ii. Before evening comes, God turns the starlight into myrrh ––this foreshadowing of burial mirrs to the memory treasured in Mary’s heart when a millennium comes, recycles the incense spices for the worship of death.
Shanley McConnell
Shanley McConnell is an interdisciplinary artist. Her work received acclaim in Sentinel Literary Quarterly, SaveAs International and the Oxford Review of Books, with more recent poetry appearing in Crank, eris & eros, The Napkin Poetry Review and Passengers Journal. Her writing often reflects her experience of immigrating to the United Kingdom as a young girl and weighs the beautiful tension of belonging to more than one country. Find more work here: shanleymcconnell.co.uk.