After a Wedding Feast

Dr. Julie Thorpe

24 March 2018

After a Wedding Feast

They have no wine

When the guests have departed,
the miracle has passed
and God has gone from his mother,
she scoops up the leftovers
to nurse in her lap,
knees spread apart, knows
again the humiliation, tastes
the last drops of wine
meant for a celebration
she helped enact.
                             Alone
with her need she watches
her secret load carried
like a golden seed
from her body
to lay in the fields
painted in purple.

©Julie Thorpe
Image The Sower, Vincent van Gogh, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent Van Gogh Foundation)