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Easter Morning -- Jim Harrison

(Poem #106)Easter Morning
 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.
-- Jim Harrison

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