Cry of Beauty

 

THE EMPTY TOMB

 

Lift

your heads and proclaim the day of salvation has removed the stone. All those whom you thought, the sons and daughters of HaHiYa’s children were dead and dying, have been raised to a new life. The tomb is empty. Visitors to the grave come as men who faces turn ashy white for the body is not present. They brought a light into the dark place where for over four hundred years we had bore suffering are too late. HaHiYa has sent word for us to get up and accept the offering of the lliving. Think not that the fallen were not kept in a book of records. The mood of the masters has changed greatly as they search in vain for the footsteps of the newly departed.

She

was a woman of a small beginning. Her voice wailing long into the nite.  Her feet spread by the burden of the beast placed upon her back.  The men she loved beaten until they spoke in foreign tongues. A foreign fire upon her lips forced to receive objects of gratification.

HaHiYa heard her tears as they fell like lead to the earth. Heavy tears because her sons face was caked with blood. Heavy tears because she heard the neck of one of her children breaking.  Later that same nite a white snake came to visit her.

She produced a litter of children holding back a giant tear of shame festering in her soul.  One day by the river she saw the image of a man handing her a seed.  She dropped the seed in the river.  Everyday for thirty-nine days she came to the river and prayed:

help me with this burden

I carry a strange beast on my back

his legs upon mine

his arms around me

his tongue sticking in my ear

feeding me bloody meat

harvesting his corn

drinking his wine

showing my children his wonders

slipping into another century a bag of tricks

to continue an act of unspeakable fantasy

send me your word of peace to unarm this

beast from my thoughts..

On the fortieth day the seed sprouted. She watched all day as it grew into a man with dreadful hair to lock out the past. He spoke to her. His mouth a black cave produced a single flame with a book at the end of it. He spit the book on the ground and she reached for it. He said wait before placing your hand upon it. Pass it on to your child he will know what to do with it. It was in the cool of the morning when she came back for the book. The man was sleeping by the shore but the book was covered with a seal, a nine pointed shape. Her footsteps aroused the sleeping man whose face had changed greatly.  He was shining when she lay with him.  She gave birth to nine souls, each with their own generation. The first child was Wint, one foot there and one foot here, he walked awkwardly all his life. Then came Mo, a sufferer of long days. Lolly came next, a pop of a female, bearer of a field of speckled lilies. These three came before her and were like little pebbles tossed into the nite. She saw her own face and the faces of the five to follow.  Sweet Nite was a lovely babe, then came the Turtle with her brood of twelve. Out of her inner self a light began and falling from a womb came a wound of blood, the mighty Tur, thought to be an error, a gatherer of  sound.  After him came Kabib, one who tied to himself  a vine producing a heady wine. Kabib the father of  crafts and measurements, and the star of the north who carried the seed of Zun, the owner of the book of promise.  He filled her womb with a hidden word. Then he said he would return in time.  Her eyes were closed and she felt a gentle touch upon her cheek and his voice said we have brought this for your children. Then he made a hole in a nearby tree, she handed him the book and he placed the book in the small place and covered it with the fire from his mouth. Your child will know when it is time. He will speak when the nite is at its darkest hour. In his day the Mussii will show its face.

Now

the hour has passed. The beast that was upon her back lays on its back kicking the air. What has been done to you one of the masters is heard asking. The beast begs for gold before he will speak. Why should we who made you pay you to tell us what we want to know. Because you don’t know the answer the beast responds. How long did you think I could hold on when she was sweating so. Tell us who removed the stone and where did the people go? The beast looked surprised, there were never any bodies there, only a dark blank space. I sat upon her back because everything had been removed. It was her children coming day after day. Each with its own generation and they supplied her with questions. She began to torment herself looking into the dust of her past. One day she caught a glimpse of me washing herself in the river.  Turning around quickly no one was to be found as I sat on her back with my hands on her head and my lips sealed to her ears. Her legs were so sweaty I lost my grip and climbed higher. Her children observed her legs were straighter and she stood taller than before. Later that night her dreams came swiftly and she saw herself flying through the sky. The sun was beginning to rise still she slept dreaming of flying. Her children gathered around the bed shaking her but she was dreaming of flying, of being free and she was sweating from the excitement, sweating like never before. When she had been ill the sweat was sticky and I could clamped down even more. This sweat of freedom was slippery. It put pictures on her blankness, her mind began to fill its own reservoir with buckets of words, she mumbled in her sleep. The children were agitated and began to beat upon her to wake her. I slipped from her oily body to the floor. The  trampling children stampeded me, vexing my soul and when she opened her eyes she saw me a beast on the floor.  She placed her children under her arms and ran out the door.  Taking them to the river they all prayed:

I want to go home  open the door

it has been so many years

they laid me in a tomb

didn’t even cry over me

said I was not even human

just a working thing

just somebody to ignore

have me when you want me

then push me out the door

pregnant with days and nites of darkness

too tired to scrub my own floor

I did everything for my children

hoping to stay alive

just long enough to be a witness

to the coming glory

A child of mine to build a house of glory

we all can call home

This is all I have to tell you masters. The tomb is empty.  The stone that men placed in front of it has been removed. I will accept your money, I am a beast designed for ruin. What name will you now call upon to hold her and her children.  They will no longer serve your god. They have found one of their own. 

HaHiYa loves them and will receive them all in his new home.  Do you judge yourselves on a coin spinning around on heads or tails or do you sit it on the edge and see it as a circle, a moon reflecting the light of the father sun, the real old story of wisdom unchanged for as long as the heavens spin overhead. I am also the same beast, the red dragon covering a forth of the heavens until my cycle is done. A bloody thing to be led to be circumcised from the heart. I know that soon or late I will be undone. But what of you men in high places who will you serve or are you the real men struggling in the tomb, making noise because you can’t find your way out.

A

great voice is rising above the din of the setting sun. I see her coming down the road and she is carrying a great book overflowing with the words of the people of her nation. A bright smile on the faces of her children. Even the old people of her tribe have a cherry appearance. The salvation so long promised has come to be. On the floor in the tomb of bondage scattered bandages and the smell of healing ointments lay in a corner.  Wind brings dust to cover the bloodstains left by tired feet. The bed sheet has been removed and the mattress set on fire.

A cup from which the thirsty drank survival removed by an unknown hand and a set of keys with their locks lay on a hillside bent and twisted. All evidence that any soul was ever present in the tomb has been removed or destroyed. Not one thought remains.

 

The

joyous music of the free, of the risen bends its way through the trees and can be clearly heard in the valley. Cascading from the mountain top to the river below. Not a single soul is quiet but speaks eloquently of the work of HaHiYa.

We

stand here with hearts on fire

fingertips tingling

the dreadfulness of our hair falling freely

we open our mouths

offer the holiest prayer of thanksgiving

the power of HaHiYa burning the air

Star of wonder singing praises

walking beside us showing us the way

emerging from a blank wall of darkness

passing from the cave and receiving a bouquet of flowers

a kiss of divine love

the word of eternal peace

thank god HaHiYa at last we are truly free 

HaHiYa is here to guide us

with laws of peace and prosperity

we climb into his mountain of love and

an abode of everlasting tranquility

peace and peace and peace and peace and peace