The Advent Calendar

~ Brett Foster Through the ear the Word of God, pressed on cardboard, impregnates with dignity the sleeping Mary, whose child, the creed says, "was conceived by the Holy Spirit." So the Church Fathers saw it, and for portraits such as this you love their resourceful escapes, the saving image in the face of language. It's true, mystery is captured by the world we know, but does it then diminish? No clever gesture meant to cover, no Vatican fig leaf, these constructions drive belief to necessary crisis. They give dimension, savagely, and manifest the questions given up on. Take away the stars and glitter from this Advent calender (found along a sidewalk sale in June, dollar-ninety-nine), what remains are rows of squares. You're left with only days, bare and perforated, a liturgy of doors, perfect symbol. Don't days, after all, amount to this, lined up, surreptitious? You open and examine them, you count them and you count them down. – previously published in Radix