Angel pauses

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window
                              Vermeer (c. 1657–59)

Wanting to know what she knows,
he enters the painting. She stands
so still, so long, reading a letter
by borrowed light. It seems
she will read it forever.

                              He hesitates,
the reflection of her hair gilding
the window brings to mind the virgin;
that and the angle of her head
above the paper, like the tilt of lilies
in conventional annunciations.