When God Calls, by Joan Leotta

The Annunciation, by Leonardo Da Vinci (Italy). 1472.

When God Calls

To Mary he sent my namesake angel
Gabriel, so she would not miss that He was calling.
Was it Verrocchio who framed her features or
was young, DaVinci in charge of
setting forth Mary’s character for us.
We know his master, Verocchio
Instructed him to “finish the angel.”
Mary seems alert, in command,
almost cold—one hand on her reading,
interrupted by the messenger,
other hand raised
in greeting or astonishment,
or was she stopping Gabriel’s flow of words
to fill the space between them with her response?

Yet I am drawn to a different picture of her,
one framed by her own words,
not brushstrokes--
“My soul doth magnify the Lord…”
Is the pride the knowledge that
“all generations will
call me blessed.”

My own soul seethes with questions,
pines for artistic answers
not given here.
Perhaps not even DaVinci’s
masterful brushstrokes can tell me
how to recognize God’s call
when He does not send an angel.

​Joan Leotta

Joan Leotta has been playing with words on page and stage since childhood in Pittsburgh. She is a writer and story performer. Her Legacy of Honor series feature strong Italian-American women. Her poetry and essays appear or are forthcoming in Gnarled Oak, the A-3 Review, Hobart Literary Review, Silver Birch, Peacock, and Postcard Poems and Prose among others. Her first poetry chapbook, Languid Lusciousness with Lemon, was just released by Finishing Line Press. Joan's picture books from Theaqllc, Whoosh!, Summer in a Bowl, Rosa and the Red Apron, and Rosa's Shell celebrate food and family. Her  award-winning short stories are collected in Simply a Smile. You can find more about her work on her blog at www.joanleotta.wordpress.com