Jim Harrison RIP. Terrif preterite poem.

[Jochen Stremmel]

Like his books very much. Didn't know the poem – thanks, Mark.

2016-03-27 22:23 GMT+02:00 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:

> 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.
> They know that you're staring at them.
>
> "Easter Morning" by Jim Harrison, from Saving Daylight. © Copper Canyon
> Press, 2007.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20160327/e846e036/attachment.html>