A Penitent Considers Another Coming of Mary

For Reverend Theodore Richardson

If Mary came would Mary

Forgive, as Mothers may,

And sad and second Saviour

Furnish us today?

She would not shake her head and leave

This military air,

But ratify a modern hay,

And put her Baby there.

Mary would not punish men—

If Mary came again.

Copyright Credit: Gwendolyn Brooks, “A Penitent Considers Another Coming of Mary” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Reprinted with the permission of the Estate of Gwendolyn Brooks.

Source: Selected Poems (Harper & Row, 1963)