Mirror Images
Above my desk, I see the Theotokos,
Mary’s face at an angle, the infant
resting his cheek against hers. The icon’s
proportions portray Mary’s face
large as the sun’s; the infant’s,
next to hers, like a moon.
Together, they suggest an altitude
above earth but not yet in the heavens.
Looking down, my hands are still,
palms up.
Hands, like mirror images, represent
two beings joined together at the hip.
If my hands have any power to move
or write, my hands owe their strength
to these oblique angles of sinew and bone,
the joining together
of different reference points,
like the artist’s converging lines pointing
to a horizon that is always
just beyond the curve of the earth—
Like sun’s gold when it touches the horizon,
Jesus’ breath, so close
Mary feels it on her cheek.
Tammy Iralu lives in New Mexico with her husband and daughter. She enjoys backpacking, hiking, and breaking bread with family and friends. She has published or forthcoming in the anthology Sanctuary, Mukoli: The Magazine for Peace, Cowley Magazine, The Other Side, and elsewhere. She participated in the San Juan National Forest Artist-in-Residence Program: Aspen Guard Station in Mancos, Colorado. Read her work at https://substack.com/@tammyiralu.
Amethyst Review 