Revelation, by Laura Michiels

The Pietà, by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spain) 1772-1774

​Revelation

Plum-coloured walls greet me
Bruised
By the precious cargo
Theirs to protect.

Goya’s ethereal pink pieta gazes up at the heavens.
Pleading
For answers
To questions about life’s cruel games.

(Or so I imagine.)

Guards chase me around the space.
Displeased
By my unconventional attire and behaviour.
The mark of madness
All too visible.

I look at Mary in despair
Hoping
That she spare me a prayer.
But she is consumed by the solemn task
Of cradling her son’s lifeless body
Now close to marble
Almost tactile
Soon to be resurrected.

As for me,
I remain
Forever motherless.

Laura Michiels

Laura Michiels is a theatre scholar based near Brussels in Belgium. She holds a PhD-degree in American literature and wrote a scholarly monograph about Tennessee Williams. She is currently working on her first poetry collection, which focuses on themes of female myth-making, mental illness and performance. Laura has worked as a teacher for almost fifteen years and is especially happy when she gets to discuss feminist theory.