print previewback JENNIFER FRANKLIN
Annunciation, without Angel
Look at me—I was already
acquainting myself with anguish.
I did not feel special. I sensed
doom that first instant—your
heavy weight in my arms,
umbilical cord still joining us,
your grown body draped over me
like a cloying velvet curtain—
eyes fastened skyward, always
looking through me. I should have
said no, should have run away,
ended it all. But I could not
turn down all that love. Too late,
I found it was not worth it. God
does not take no for an answer.
If I had refused, it would have ended
the same. But then I could wear
some scar of comfort that mine
were not the hands that married
you off to wood, to ruin. 
Annunciation, without Angel
June
Reading
about the Lost Children of Tuam
Still Life with
Gold