Impressions of Divinity

Roberta Teale Swartz

Now all the rare Madonnas
In sepia, gold, and blue,
That wear a light of river beds
And stare with holy rue;

And all the saints that by them stand
With Keys, or Cross, or Book,
And martyrs with red wounds revealed
That on the Babe do look;

Now all the angels-even she
Whose beauty none may bear
Because of her unearthliness,
Her sleeve, and shadowed hair-
Ashen are their aureoles
In color and cartoon,
For I have looked on living men,
And halos worn at noon.