EASTER MORNING
(African Easter)
By Abioseh Nicol

Another day……….
Sleep leaves my eyes slowly
Unwillingly like a true lover.
But this day is different.
The lonely matin bells
Cut across the thin morning mist,
The glinting dew on the green grass,
The cool pink light before the heat of the day,
Before the muezzins begins to cry,
Before the pagan drums begin to beat.

Easter morning.
But still for me,
The great rock remained unrolled.
Within my wet dark tomb
Wounded peace remained embalmed,
The pricking thorns still yet my crown.

Easter morning.
Where are my ancestral spirit now?
I have forgotten for many harvest
To moisten the warm earth
With poured libations.
Where are you now, Sango?
Two-headed, powerful
Man and woman, hermaphrodite
Holding your quivering thunderbolts
With quiet salvage malice;
Brooding over your domain,
Africa, Cuba, Haiti, Brazil,
Slavery of mind unabolished.
Always wanting to punish, never to love.
I have turned away from you
To one who stands
Watching His dispossessed Son
Shouting in Aramaic agony
Watching the white Picasso dove
Hovering above the Palestinian stream
Watching and waiting, sometimes
To punish, always to love.

Sleep confused my tired mind
Still the bell rings
I must up and away.
I am a good churchman now,
Broadminded, which means past caring
Whether high or low.
The priest may hold the chalice
Or give it to me. It depends
On where he is trained. I only mind
That he wipes the wet rim
Not to spread dental germs.
A tenth of my goods
I give to the poor
As income tax.

Easter morning.
Yet you Christ are always there.
You are the many-faceted crystal
Of our desires and hopes,
Behind the smoke screen of incense,
Concealed in mumbled European tongues
Of worship and praise.
In the thick dusty verbiage
Of centuries of committees
Of ecumenical councils.
You yet remain revealed
To those who seek you.
It is I, you say.
You remain in the sepulchre
Of my brown body.

Christ is risen, Christ is risen!
You were not dead.
It was just that we
Could not see clearly enough.
We can push out the rock from the inside.
You can come out now.
You see we want to share you
With our masters, because
You are really unique.