The author’s sonnet-patterned pieces were inspired by John W. Lynch’s “A Woman Wrapped in Silence,” a lyric narrative of Mary’s life and passion as a maiden and then mother of the Son, whose magnificent obedience to the will of the Father took her from her womb to the tomb of the crucified Christ. The paragraphs represent the number 7, the significance of which can be found throughout the Bible.
As Simple as Truth
(For Ate Marielou)
by ABRAHAM M. DE LA TORRE
Her circumstances out of Ripley will
without an effort shake a head or knit
a brow. It is not known if it is known
despite it all her disposition shines
as brightly as upon her face a smile

has stuck. There is no compliment that stands
to equal what her miseries amount
to. It’s enough that as she goes her way
her paintings, prose and poetry, she prays
will somehow fetch a fee commensurate
to some of her stray acts of kindness thrown
as randomly as choices seem to thin.
She asks, however bare of courtesy,
emboldened only by a heart professed
out of a mutual chord struck by a guilt
that took an amity almost for naught.
Because she gives, oh yes, she does and did
when she was not yet shackled by the need
to hold her court which also was a fort
assailed by dire fate no one could thwart

aside. Until some time mayhap she could
put forth a fortitude she can’t repose
because like fear it cannot be imposed
on folk when miracles keep happening
albeit in small doses and she’s not
about to choose a flag that cannot cope.
She read to me a passage in a book
I never can repay the gift it took.