The Vision of Stella Niagara
Stella Niagara Preserve
She ran along the sidewalk,
House after house zoomed by
On this hot and listless summer day.
She ran
Past the nunnery on the opposite side of the road
At once welcoming and imposing
Past a statute of Michael the Archangel
Whose wings spread out towards the river behind him.
She ducked, then climbed through a metal gate
And ran partway down the hill.
To her left was a small pasture on a decline
That sloped sharply at first behind her
Then gently
Towards a quiet river.
Not too far in the distance
Upon a cliff above the river
Sat a small, old chapel
With white paint,
A sloped, brown roof,
And topped with a bell tower.
It hadn’t been used in years.
It sat silently.
The little girl took a sharp right turn
Into a small grotto
Chasing a floating speck of light.
The sky suddenly turned as black as midnight.
The sun was gone,
And up above dazzled a thousand stars.
She stopped dead in her tracks.
In front of her was a statue of a young girl
Holding a rosary
Praying before a statute of Mary
Who held a bouquet of roses in her holy hands.
The Marian statue was set into a misplaced wall of old stones.
To the girl, both statues had always just been there.
They felt lifeless,
Hollow.
Today, she’d see a vision.
To the left of Mary
Was an archway
Always left curiously empty
As if waiting for this exact moment
To reveal its secret contents.
The small orb of light
The girl had been chasing
Suddenly shot up into the now-night sky
And became the brightest star.
Its light filtered down from the darkness above
And shone directly into the empty archway.
Just then,
The faint outline of a woman
Making slight movements with her arms
Appeared.
The girl then heard an ethereal voice from all around her:
Behold, fair child.
I am the antidote to your current age.
Even from behind this spiritual light,
I can see the possession within your mind.
Tricksy angels and spirits
Set it there
Among your ancestors
Long ago.
It’s still there today,
Passed down to each of you now living.
It’s up to you
To unwind it.
To take it apart.
To dismantle it.
Piece by mechanical piece.
This possession
Has captured your entire imagination.
You must free it.
To do so,
Recognize what is.
You run along these stolen lands
Blissfully unaware of the troubles inflicted by your people.
But how could you know?
You are so young.
Learn what happened to those who were here before
And are still here today
For they have the knowledge
Of how to repair the world.
Go and tell the sisters here
The ones who live above the hill
To partner with this land
To revere it.
Tell them to look to the stars
And to the spirits of the land
And to the old stewards
For guidance.
You must do the same.
It is the only way
To save yourself.
Above her head,
She heard a chorus of music.
The stars began to slightly quake
As they shook themselves loose from the night sky.
They drew together to form a circle
That slightly descended into her hands
By starlight.
It was a rosary.
The girl,
Never having said a prayer in her life,
Knelt down
And began to pray
Moving her fingers along each stellar bead.
The sky
Snapped back to daytime.