Virginia Easter

They are in need of me today of all days so the table can be set with unbent forks and their silent roosters--ye soft wattles play on. White linen veils the ancient splintered picnicktop for small hands as chipped mallets tick-tock clumsily between bowed feet. So eggs are not too devilish to eat or be found among the thick Virginia grasses. I tell stories of the fabled light of Notre Dame they can't believe entirely because God is not a wafer. They are in need of me today as the son for theirs has disowned himself to the hedon coast listening to Phish, and the postcards speak of nothing but brilliant light. They are in need of me today as the daughter for theirs is grown and has grown a wailing cherub, but fiddle folded napkins when I speak of Cixous, Butler, Luce. They are in need of me today as the resurrection of their spirits in fading Virginian light for I am their beautiful heathen.