Her veined-lined wrinkled hands once clasped in prayer
Now slowly trace the letters on the page.
Her fast complete, she feasts on ancient words
Announcing that a child is born, a son
Is given. Light illuminates the book
She holds, its source, a prophecy of Word
Made flesh, the mighty God born Prince of Peace,
bright consolation of all Israel.
This aged widow wears a cloak of red,
A silken headdress stitched with golden thread,
Reminders of two other prophecies —
Of lamb of God and flesh made sacrifice,
Of glory and the Lord of hosts made king.
after Old Woman Reading
Rembrandt van Rijn
Oil on panel, 1631
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Sharon Fish Mooney is author of Bending Toward Heaven: Poems After the Art of Vincent van Gogh (Wipf & Stock) and editor of A Rustling and Waking Within, an ekphrastic poetry anthology (OPA Press). Her own poems and French translations have appeared in a variety of journals including Rattle, RUMINATE, First Things, Modern Age and Transference. She won the inaugural Frost Farm prize for metrical poetry. She teaches nursing online and is poetry editor for Journal of Christian Nursing. For more information, please visit www.sharonfishmooney.com