Ezra's Picnic

January 20, 2010

Picnic

In Nehemiah 8, the people call on Ezra to get up on the platform they have built.  “Read to us the Law,” they plead.  Ezra does and the Levites interpret.  The people weep for their sins.  And with the tears they shed the demons that have invaded them and impelled them and prevented them.  Ezra says, then, “Now , that is done.  Sit down, have a meal.  The Levites echo: “Now, that is done.  Sit down, have a meal.” 

     Let’s say it’s New Orleans instead of Jerusalem.  And two wander away from the crowd, an aging boy and his aging girl.  They get in their car and they drive to City Park, where they sit down on a bench with a quarter of a muffuletta apiece and a can of Coke to share.  An gargantuan angel with gold-rimmed teeth in red shorts and a u-shirt arrives in an SUV.  He has his children with him, a boy and a girl both slim as dust.  They’ve come to feed the birds; he brings them every day.  And the birds begin to gather around the black Escalade as if it were a statue of St. Francis. 

     The old boy and the old girl watch for some minutes, then get in their car to head somewhere else.  And look, there he is lumbering after them, huge black legs poured into his white socks and bedroom slippers.  He holds something up in his enormous hand, the forgetful girl’s purse.  The muffuletta man stops the car.  And the angel chuffs up and hands the purse through the passenger window.  The passenger smiles and says, “Thank you.”  He grins in reply, taps the window frame with both hands “you’re welcome,” walks back to his kids feeding the birds.