Felicitations,
dear friend, felicitations, felicitations.
Kindly
accept my best wishes
on
this happy occasion.
Hope
you will enjoy this year’s celebrations.
Yes,
I do sincerely hope
you
will enjoy this year’s celebrations.
For
indeed your Christ has risen.
Yes,
indeed your deservedly Cherished Savior
has
long
risen.
As
for mine, dear friend, as for mine. Well…mine, it seems, is still buried deep
within... No. No. Mine is still, in fact, hanging on the cross. Or should it be
the crescent in my case? I don’t know, I really don’t know. Not that it matters
really, crucifixion is the same, isn’t it?
Crucifixion
is the same.
And
my Christ is still crucified,
and
I along with him.
For
we are old comrades, He and I,
old
mates,
old
pals,
old
partners in the holy struggle for the salvation
of
my soul
and
sanity
in
this world that leaves no soul unstained,
and
spares not even the modicum of sanity.
It
all vanishes eventually,
don’t
you see?
It
all vanishes…eventually.
Eventually,
we
will die, He and I,
and
I don’t think either of us will rise again.
We…
are
not meant to have an Easter,
I
don’t think.
We are not meant to bequeath hopes
and
credulity,
just
lingering doubts and uncertainties.
And
a hapless truth,
born
out of longing,
that
will soon be
forgotten.
May 1998