The Annunciation I

Whispers of love were in the springtime air
as I lay dreaming of our first full kiss
beside the temple wall when he said this
was happiness and could we ever share
our lives together, find a place somewhere.
All I could do was smile, feel my heart miss
a beat and wipe away a tear. All this
I dreamt about after my night-time prayer.

Then Heaven spoke. Or was it that the stars
twinkled a little brighter till a glow
entered the bedroom where, that night, I lay
dreaming of Joseph and the local bars,
until, before I slept, it whispered so:
“You shall bring forth a son one winter’s day.”

—Conor Kelly