Patchwork Madonna

An old lady in a funny hat,
a former Maja Desnuda,
a dinosaur marching across her temple,
a cat sitting on a sunny window ledge,
watches,
from the windows of the afterlife,
her loved ones’ hearts
as they ride the winds of their private worlds,
soaring
and then burrowing
in the in-between spaces,
as an imp grows his beard
into the fibers of their beings,
while a gargoyle carries the load.

A genie rises from a pool
with his back to Mama Bear,
who howls for the children
she can no longer embrace.

A woman in an old-fashioned hat
moves through eternity,
leaving a patchwork madonna in her wake.