Before a blinding figure with broad wings
cast a shadow over yours,
did He ask
whether you wanted a miracle?
Before the Godhead
pressed himself upon you, did he ask
your permission?
Did Three count as your first?
Had Joseph been
more skeptical, would you have been buried
up to your neck,
pelted with stone by a ring of men
until the sand turned red?
If you knew your child would wear thorns
atop his head, hang
from cruciform wood, would you have carried
the burden?
If you refused Gabriel’s announcement,
would the Lord have smote thee,
Mary?
Maybe you had
no say.
What, though, if you had?
Jonathan Fletcher
Jonathan Fletcher holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Columbia University School of the Arts. His work has been featured in numerous literary journals and magazines, and he has won or placed in various literary contests. A Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction nominee, he won Northwestern University Press’s Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize contest in 2023, for which his debut chapbook, This is My Body, was published in 2025. Currently, he serves as a Zoeglossia Fellow and lives in San Antonio, Texas.