Nights of the Angels of the Transfiguration

We escape convent walls

a blizzard of angels

 

in white nightgowns

filthy feet and feathered wing

 

racing across grass

laughing among the narcissus

 

by day we are put away

beneath stained glass windows

 

no one hungers for us

lamenting princesses of Christ

 

small cold hands

without mothers to warm them

 

bruises beneath blouses

sisters of the holy misery

 

passing down their catechism of loveless

mothers to doomed daughters

 

at seventeen we escape

into watercolor light

 

the cold pink breath

of Sunday morning

 


Elizabeth Mercurio is a poet and teacher residing in York, Pennsylvania. She holds a degree in English from the University of South Florida. Her work has appeared in The York Daily Record, Yorkfest Anthology 2014, the blog Versify, and will be forthcoming in the journal Third Point Press. You can visit her at http://www.tenthmuse.ws/