by Carole Stone

At the Musée National du Moyen Age

Stories in paint and stone:
the Annunciation, Mary nurses her child,

The Assumption: Mary taken up to heaven.
Cripples and the blind being cured.

Thyme, chervil and basil thrive
in the garden; it bloomed for Charlemagne.

In this hour, when the earth is full
of human hatred, a pear tree promises salvation.

A blonde young woman, anointed with oil,
her bra unsnapped, bathes in the sun.

Once, Christ a certainty, monks’ quills
scraped on parchment.

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Carole Stone is a Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing, emerita, Montclair State University. She has published five books of poetry. Her recent poems have appeared in Sequestrum, Presence, A Catholic Journal, and Blue Fifth Review.