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Sunday, March 31, 2013

"Easter Morning" by Jim Harrison


                                                    On Easter morning all over America
                                                    the peasants are frying potatoes in bacon grease.

                                                    We're not supposed to have "peasants"
                                                    but there are tens of millions of them
                                                    frying potatoes on Easter morning,
                                                    cheap and delicious with catsup.

                                                    If Jesus were here this morning he might
                                                    be eating fried potatoes with my friend
                                                    who has a '51 Dodge and a '72 Pontiac.

                                                    When his kids ask why they don't have
                                                    a new car he says, "these cars were new once
                                                    and now they are experienced."

                                                    He can fix anything and when rich folks
                                                    call to get a toilet repaired he pauses
                                                    extra hours so that they can further
                                                    learn what we're made of.

                                                    I told him that in Mexico the poor say
                                                    that when there's lightning the rich
                                                    think that God is taking their picture.
                                                    He laughed.

                                                    Like peasants everywhere in the history
                                                    of the world ours can't figure out why
                                                    they're getting poorer. Their sons join
                                                    the army to get work being shot at.

                                                    Your ideals are invisible clouds
                                                    so try not to suffocate the poor,
                                                    the peasants, with your sympathies.

             "Easter Morning" by Jim Harrison, from Saving Daylight© Copper Canyon Press, 2007.

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