Gauguin:

I see the Madonna in her quiet smile.  
At home they call this blasphemy but here, 
so far from the Church and its dogma,
the Virgin makes herself most manifest,
crawls under the dark skin of a girl 
with no intent other than the care of her child.  
At home, my wife would be toting up the expense
account, this for shoes, that for school, what we
need to put on the priest's plate come Sunday
to save his soul, a son obscured by coinage.  
She'd pray for me to leave this heathen place, 
offer a means back to her arms and the high cost 
of redemption.  But here I am saved in the arms 
of a woman who holds me like a son, warm, 
fragrant and innocent in the brilliant light.