Marilyn Nelson. Magnificent.

Marilyn Nelson

"...The man in their gift shop was an expert

on the Sisters’ long struggle to find a way

to serve the Christian Church and Candombl.

The eldest Sister is called 'the Perpetual Judge';

every seventh year, she becomes the bridge

on which the Virgin Mary crosses back,

sorrowing love incarnate in a black

ninety-odd-year-old woman facing death

and saying Magnificat with every breath.

We drove out of the valley looking back

on lightbulbs which intensified the thick,

incomprehensible, mysterious

darkness of the unknown. Grown serious

and silent in our air-conditioned van,

we rode back into the quotidian."

from Cachoeira,

Marilyn Nelson