Saint Margaret

Margaret: Scotland's saintly queen.
Honouring the one, by remembering the other.

Metaphors, similes, analogies

in abundance dance happily

around her one little person.

And so, let’s begin thusly;

 

chubby as a cherub

and equally sweet faced

the eyes a placid pond, calming

brown as chocolate buttons

 

straight-forward manner

practical, willing and, above all,

uncomplaining;  Yes, Sir to any request

and right away on the job

 

like a miniature classroom version

of the best sergeant

in the regiment, although

much gentler, obviously!

 

An A student at living life

from another better age, inevitably

she struggles with book work

even simple adding

 

is like calculus to her, and I hope

I reassure her with the truth

about the lessons; in the scheme

of things, they don’t matter so much

 

and in time the cogs will align.

Still I worry that her can-do vim

turns to frustration and

turning inward wounds her

 

for the life she should have

of building child by child

our nation’s future of

her earthy, yet saintly, stock

 

she cannot understand this

that she holds best that which

passing shows the greatness

of her soul, not found in lessons.

 

Saint Margaret, it’s really me

who learns from you but

on this day, of  your namesake’s

crossing, find the favour returned.

 

Let me show you how to do

this sum by analogy that fits

your character; you and me

together re-building the world:

 

Here’s the spade, you dig.

I’ll bag the soil.

NB. Saint Margaret's feast day is the 16th November; the day of her death in 1093.

And what a eulogy!: 

A precious pearl saw the light in Hungary, and lived at the court of the Confessor, a School of Holiness. Torn from homeland, you embrace another. You became Queen and Mother, the glory of Scots. Your Queen's crown, a crown of Charity. Your way, the Royal Way of the Cross...Once, mere men, placed crowns upon your head. But I, Innocent, Peter's successor, Servant of Christ, now place upon your head, the greatest crown of all, sainthood. - The Oration of Canonisation by Innocent IV from 1250