Goodbye Enemy Airship (A Short Treatise On Education)
"The rug--or let us say the bourgeios parquet floor--has been ruthlessly pulled out from under our feet, and we must now search for a bit of earth on which to stand." Bonhoeffer 1928
Mind
broken over scraps of metal and ruin. I scrape along under maroon
clouds wondering what we will become. Mist and haze all around, smoke
clouds as if lifting off a great crowd of milling people, but no one
is here. Only burning cars.
Pools
of water appear to reflect the heavens. Gorecki’s aria begins. The
strings are slow to swell and then deep at first. A beautiful voice
sings out:
Mamo,
nie płacz, nie. (No,
Mother, do not weep)
Niebios Przeczysta Królowo, (Most chaste Queen of Heaven)
Ty zawsze wspieraj mnie. (Support me always.)
Niebios Przeczysta Królowo, (Most chaste Queen of Heaven)
Ty zawsze wspieraj mnie. (Support me always.)
Then
the piano and the last line sings out:
Zdrowas
Maria (Holy Mother)
All
smoke ceases as the cars dissolve into dirt. The ground itself seems
to rise in little hills and green sprouts emerge. The clouds break
open as the sun beams upon the new sprouts, eagerly looking down into
the world renewed.
Another
voice:
Do
not explain.
Let
one reading suffice.
Give
them poetry and parables.
No
more candy.
No
more marks.
Give
them Greek tragedy for God’s sake.
The
child must read to know.
Your
business is to see that they know.
With
these commands growing louder and stronger the final t.v. fuzz blows
away. The sprouts are putting out their leaves and shedding the dead
seed.
The
child opens her eyes and looks skyward. With a noble countenance she
whispers: Goodbye Enemy Airship.
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