Saturday, April 3, 2010

April 3, 2010 -- Easter at the Jewple

His mother can’t read the sign, whose script letters

-- the only embellishment on the shabby corner –-

appear to spell “JEWPLE”

instead of “TEMPLE”.

This old bodega, made over into a home

for evangelical, baptist, Pentecostal

Christian practitioners, where the testifying

and singing of the congregation and its Sunday converts

weaves its way around the sirens,

thumping music, and voice of the city.

The building rocks with religion

and tonight of all nights he knows

that they will be singing and witnessing

and praising as if they alone were raising the dead.

He is secretly thankful for their presence

although he cannot explain why.

When his mother asks him if they celebrate

Easter at the Jewple,

he can only smile and say,

“I don’t know Ma.

Let’s open the windows and listen.”

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