Page 199 - Eggs and Ashes pages

198 Eggs and Ashes

her lungs’ labouring towards death. And the pigeon. The pigeon. God knows how
long he’d been perched there (which God found quite funny, considering that she was
God). But it hurt too much to laugh. The pigeon squatted uncomfortably on a melted
wheelie bin, not wanting to get too close. He knew, you see; he’d worked out whom
he was with. And he didn’t like it one bit: In the midst of the filth and crap here was
God. Filthy and unloved. Here she was, down here with the likes of the pigeons, the
vermin, the scum and, for better or worse, it was as if she were one of them. It was too
much for anyone to take in, let alone a pigeon, and he shuffled nervously to and fro,
eyeing God with the cautious look of one who’s had to dodge an aimed kick once too
often. God didn’t seem to mind – she just sat, lungs grating, slowly dying, gently
watching the pigeon and glad of a friend. They waited a while.
Darkness was coming on. The pigeon sensed rain, but knew this was no time to
run. Today there was no shelter to be found. Here was his place, exposed, with his
God – exposed and alone. Time was up. God knew it, the pigeon knew it. It was
finished and God thought again of the girl in the mall, and the mocking voices, and
the gang of laughing drunken lads who’d beat her to a pulp last night, and was so
filled with love that she could do nothing but die.
The pigeon could hold out no longer, and with all the grace he could muster
(which wasn’t a lot) flapped his way into the open, dead hand of God. And, some-
how, in the midst of the rotten, hopeless scene, in a place the world would rather
forget, he knew that today he was with God in Paradise.

Rachel Mann

He and she and we
(Words from the Cross, 2004)

When they came to the place that is called the Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the
criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for
they do not know what they are doing.’ (Luke 23:33–34)

He was a Hutu.
The radio told him
that the Tutsis were like cockroaches
and must be destroyed –
he took his machete;
he went to his neighbour’s house.
Father, forgive …