A poem by Kellyanne Fitzgerald
Magnificant
Thou O Lord wilt open my lips.
And my mouth shall declare thy praise
Incline unto my aid O God.
My soul will magnify the violets
and my spirit has rejoiced in the buzz of the snow plow
Because they have regarded the humility of my being,
Because no creature knows my name
or cares that I exist.
Because the spirits that are in baby birds and the things that eat baby birds
and the unfeeling and ghastly beauty of the night sky
have done great things to me,
and holy is their name.
Their mercy is from generation unto generation
to those who remember them and even to those who forget.
Because they have kept the sea fronds alive
because they have scattered languages and fashions
across the path of history, pulped and splintering like paper.
Because they have given pens and pulled crowns
from the heads of the mighty. Cameras blink like eyelashes
because in all the new horrors there are new wonders.
Because they have been forgotten and murdered
and still fill the hungry with treasures
rye and marmalades and brown sugar.
Because they have received us as caretakers
Because we need each other.
As they spoke to our mothers, to the First Woman
and to her children forever
Glory be to the Mother,
and to her Child,
and to the Holy Ghost
as it was in the beginning is now,
and ever shall be
world without end
Amen.
Kellyanne Fitzgerald is a writer and artist based in Madison, Wisconsin. In her free time she enjoys language learning, fiber arts, and folk art illustration.