Guest poet: Zachary Bartles

from Mysteries of the Rosary

from "Mysteries of the Rosary"


     I: Annunciation 

Angel-departed, 
     the room suddenly grows dark. 
She lay curled in bed 

     and thinks of her betrothed. O 
 woman, how do you tell him? 






     II: Visitation 

The fruit of her womb
     umbilical-ripening 
as on a vine, which

     her cousin calls blessed. Although 
this fruit, pressed, gives blood, not wine. 






     III: Nativity 

Here, the Pietà 
     is foreshadowed: the Mother 
cradles her newborn. 
     
     And here two myrrh-scented hands  
beckon to hold their swathed King.  





     XV: Crucifixion 

Giving up the ghost,
     Christ’s head lolls. His crown becomes 
that of a wreath. Arms 

     taut from holding the dead weight 
remain outstretched. Embrace Him.

Zachary Bartles was raised in the Shenandoah Valley of West Virginia. His work appears or is forthcoming in Appalachian Review, Ekstasis Magazine by Christianity Today, Relief: A Journal of Art and Faith, The Way Back to Ourselves, and Ribbons by the Tanka Society of America, among others. He lives in East Texas with his wife, where he is a stay-at-home father to their daughter.