Easter, Pesach and Passionate Pogroms

The history of pogroms in the Spring in Eastern Europe is forgotten by many.

 

Easter, Pesach and Passionate Pogroms

 

Easter’s passion flows

with bunny and egg promotions

as the Spring’s fertility rites

ratchet to full racket,

egg hunts and painting,

hard-boiled egg rolls

and flopped floral bonnets

to welcome the weather,

its elder cousin Pesach

steaming to its own heat

in abstinence and excess,

gone to matzoh and macaroons,

fish all gefilted, horseradished,

where Spring wheat and barley once grew..

 

Spring hides, dangerous in its passions

provoking the shut-ins from dark lairs

proclaiming their right to kill

if the moon is full and the drink is hot:

East Europe’s pogroms

an old spring rite less in fashion now

and never fitting with the turning of cheeks

or self-sacrifice to save souls or life,

but about resentments and scapegoats

for lives exposed by the warm April light.

 

American Spring hides the dark passion,

the blaming of a people

of olive skin and Semitic face

for the death back two millennia

of their own son, their own teacher.

It’s hid beneath the glossy pages

and the supermarket displays.

It’s hid beneath the fabric,

but is it just waiting for some cruel Spring,

still stored within the flesh?

Passion still plays when the downtrodden

need a safe space to place their hate.

 

2007 David P. Eckert

Reviews

[Kevin Connolly]

Genius. I've said it before and I'll say it again, David, you are an absolutely fantastic poet.

[Amberly...]

good job!!!!!!!

[Tamela J. Gordon]

This poem was absolutely divine, David. Very well put together. I admire how you were able to expose all that's overlooked when this holiday and all the others roll around.

[Krystal Waters]

You really are on a roll, David. I think you found your nitch! What can I say that everyone hasn't?! Thank you for writing such a wonderful poem and sharing.





Kristine

[Ron Cole]

Excellent and intellectual verse, David! It reminds us that hate will find excuses even within the celebration of resurrection!

[K Antonacci]

Mmmmmmm such nice work!

"Spring hides, dangerous in its passions
provoking the shut-ins from dark lairs
proclaiming their right to kill
if the moon is full and the drink is hot: "

I love all the different parts to this, easter in the beginning, the sort of darkness in the second part, and then the even darker third piece. And i like these lines, "its elder cousin Pesach
steaming to its own heat"

Great job!!
Love,
K

[Barry S. Maltese]

Some people will not let some things just fade into the past. I am hoping that the birth of a new spring just might bring about the birth of new hopes, new resolves towards love. Nicely written my friend.

[Randall Richard]

was a little cold for me, felt a bit textbook. more immagery could help make this feel more poetic, less history report. i love the concept though and the idea of looking beyond the peeps and cadbury eggs andthinking about what it all really means

[T. L. O'Neal]

This was a very good poem and very informative. I learned a lot from it that I didn't know. Thank you for that. T

[Antony]

David, excellent, and so very true. or should I say, not politically correct. I love it.
Tony