POETRY
Easter Sunday Around the Globe
Guilty Euro-centric
pleasure. Fleshy goat spinning
above a trough of coals, baskets of blood
red eggs, thorny crown
of bread and dates. My brother-in-law
roams the streets of Jerusalem, unaware
today is my high holy
day of patent leather shoes and pastel
almonds—a river in Palestine? a malaprop?
This meat, that root. This statue, that procession.
What relic sunk in the cypress and fir
I foraged, flimsy shelter of my life? When they take her
down from the altar like a pressed
shirt, Mary’s tears bloody
as the ancient river. Mother
of God, she is not
immune, caged in gold
filigree, jaundiced with grief. She could
be a pop star. Estrella, Soledad,
crowd of adoring fans. Downy rain of red and pink flower petals
fall from roof and balcony. In what garden, holy
hour of prayer, did I fall
asleep? Did I betray
you with a kiss? The chocolate
egg splits open on a fault
line, necklace nestled in plastic, race
car, puzzle. If I dribbled holy
water over your foot, if I capitalized
your pronouns would You
reveal yourself to me? Penitents, like so many
klansmen draped in hood and robe, roam
Spanish streets, shields pressed with tools
of the Passion—crown, spike,
rope. Community theater, a thousand
troops or more. Romans armored in gray
felt like a dozen scaly fish. Devils in white
face ravage body and soul. Cobbler and king
listing like pals at the pub. Then you enter, radiant
with suffering and we all ask, how
shall I live? East and orthodox
of here, Grandmothers in Italy and Greece
braid a Holy Trinity of ropy dough, grandfathers poke
olive wood coals, carve fat-riddled salami. In East County
mothers mold gelatin—strawberry
swans, grape eggs, lemon duckies. In the sunken
family room, uncles and cousins
sing the Miserere for the home
team, last in the league. Back in the land of none
of my ancestors, lamb entrail
soup, thick with tongue and heart.
A graduate of the writing program at Boston University, Deborah J. Bennett’s poems have appeared in Salamander, 236, Tupelo Press, Connotations Press Online, FUSION and in 2024, Sugar House. Her prose has appeared on Only a Game, Cognoscenti, and Edify. She recently attended Bread Loaf’s Translators’ Conference and Colrain’s Poetry Manuscript Conference.
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Photo: Semana Santa, Málaga, Spain. Public Domain.
Heart of Flesh Literary Journal 