I was visited by an angel
that sunny afternoon in May
Amid sun-speckled shade
lying head-in-lap with my lover
on a park bench beneath the ripening Spring
of our youth
Her name was Emily
– the angel, not my lover –
and she lived in the dorm
behind Dartmouth Hall
It was Spring, of course
and suddenly
The air was filled with cherry blossoms
A gentle snowburst of velvet white
showering down upon our heads
Amid the green
And Emily was dancing around us,
singing an ode to love
and to the young lovers
which we yet were
And then, as quickly, she was gone –
or going, at the very least
Having delivered her message,
her psalm
Waking in us the realization
of how good, at this very moment,
it was to be us
Right Now
She descended to earth and resumed
her merely mortal task
of getting to class on time
The Hebrew makes no distinction:
mal’akh is messenger
and mal’akh is angel
The two were the same to our fathers
Until now, when so many wait,
brushing aside messages of love
from those who hold them dear
While waiting for an angel to bring them a sign
It brings me to tears
But even so, I am drawn
to park benches
Where weary mothers rest while their children run
Where old couples wait
in each other’s quiet company
Remembering springtime
and cherry blossoms of their own
Where the street-sullied man
whose dreams have been reduced
for now
to three carrier bags
and a cockeyed grocery cart
Where he nurses his soul
and asks “What now?”
I can’t help it – I am drawn
These are sacred spaces
Like my own Mount Moriah where,
anointed in cherry blossoms,
I was visited by an angel
to renew my faith
And so, donning my heart of paper wings
I slow when I approach
to do what little any stranger can
from the passing glance of a morning’s walk
An earnest smile is all:
to recognize the humanity
the beauty that is you
And pay homage to your hopes,
your dreams
and the untold story
of the long road you have known
That is all
But again, why?
Because I know that for this one moment
in the eyes of my fathers
and all they believed in
By delivering this message
I too am an angel
David Pablo Cohn 