Challenging Poetry

Andorra: the white lady

she’s gone now,
the white lady born
under a wild rose
on epiphany so many
years ago.
they stole her
away and locked her
at an altar, but she walked
back on stone feet
to her rose.
she burned
with the rose—the rose
she loved so dearly
that she would not
be moved.

line count: 15

Author's Note ▼

The patron saint of Andorra is Our Lady of Meritxell, which was a statue of the virgin and child. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Meritxell
A fire destroyed the church and the statue in 1972, which I thought was a shame, because even though they've rebuilt the church and commissioned another statue, and perhaps in the heart of the people it is the same, to me, reading it so far away, it felt like a loss of a miracle.