Getsemani

20 Replies

Getsemani

In the afternoons, in Parque del Centario
turkey vultures soar on the updrafts
parrots and monkeys hang out in the trees
a malevolent iguana roams.

This where the slaves came in from Africa
and the gold left for Spain.
San Pedro Claver ministered to the slaves
gave them sanctuary and religion
protected them from the Spanish,
when he could,
so it’s not all bad news.


Pope John Paul Two visited Cartagena in 1986
and apologized for the Inquisition.
There’s a statue of him in one of the squares.
It’s not a Botero.

In the back of a restaurant
in Getsemani,
a girl with magenta hair
is singing “Losing my Religion”,
the lines the singer sings
cross the room
like planes in a cubist painting.

That’s Slim in the corner.

He lost his religion some time ago,
he thought the punishment
for impure actions, impure thoughts
was excessive, at a time when
he was all impure actions, impure thoughts.
He imagined going down to hell
and meeting Adolf Hitler
who would say to him:
What are you in for?
And he’d reply;
Impure actions, impure thoughts.
And he knew, he just knew
that Adolf would scoff.

Taking part in Open Link over at dverse

Image is photo of Graffiti, in Getsemani, Cartagena, Colombia.

20 thoughts on “Getsemani”

  3. kim881's avatarkim881

    Amazing riffing on the REM song, Jim, and I love the way you set the scene in the opening stanza, which reminded me of paintings by Henri Rousseau – and then you surprised me with these lines:

    ‘the lines the singer sings
    cross the room
    like planes in a cubist painting’.

    Like

    Reply ↓

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