Poetry

...Jean Gallagher Particular Annunciation (Or, We Discuss Having a Child) The thought arrives like Gabriel with his art deco wings, sleek as glazed porcelain, striped and full of eyes as a hallucination, and not seeming suited for flight: / could do it...

...In a particular Annunciation she and the angel bow politely, hands crossed flat over flat chests, two businessmen in gracious, wary negotiation...

...Framed in her separate arch, the speckled, burnished light around her head hovers, contained but expandable, and says, think it over...

...She appears blank as a drum, poker-faced, noncommittal...

...Neither speaks...

...But the open porch where they incline toward each other hums like a force field...