On the Aerodynamics of Angels, by Ann Taylor

The Annunciation, by Leonardo Da Vinci (Italy) 1476

On the Aerodynamics of Angels                                                     
 
Draped in weighty earth-tones,
DaVinci’s Gabriel kneels
in this walled garden, 
casts a deep shadow
across the lawn
of blooming flowers. 
 
Straight from heaven,
he delivers his message
to Mary, who turns
from her book,
welcomes him.  
 
Not at all the usual
floating illumination,
this angel is grounded. 
 
The scientist, so exact
about mechanical workings
of everything, leaves
his angel’s celestial wings
unfit to hoist his heft
even an inch into air.
 
Flying, Gabriel  
is equipped to soar
with a single wingstroke,
to all places, all at once,
but descended to earth,
bearing worldly news,
he’s unmistakably,
at this moment, one of us.  
 
Ann Taylor
 
Ann Taylor has written two books on college composition, academic and free-lance essays, and a collection of personal essays, Watching Birds: Reflections on the Wing.  Her first poetry book, The River Within, won first prize in the 2011 Cathlamet Poetry competition at Ravenna Press. A chapbook, Bound Each to Each, was published in 2013. Her collection, Héloïse and Abélard: the Exquisite Truth, published in 2018, is based on the twelfth-century story of their lives, and her most recent collection,Sortings, was published by Dos Madres Press, in June of 2020.  She is currently at work on a new collection of poems, called Taking Care.