Litany/2 (Presente!)
The following was near the end in the original version of The Book of Mev.
Ignacio Ellacuria, engaged intellectual, credible witness,
Fearless announcer of God’s Kingdom . . .
Presente!
Ordinary eco-friendly folk, hallowers of this land,
These waters, all this air. . .
Presente!
Nhat Hanh, you are breathing, I am smiling . . .
Presente!
Ann Manganaro, gentle healer in El Salvador,
Sagacious leader, spiritual elder. . .
Presente!
Sebastiao Salgado, some of the blind now see thanks to you . . .
Presente!
Homeless men, women, and children of the Americas,
From Chiapas to downtown Saint Louis to Rio,
Grand Central Station to Telegraph Avenue . . .
Presente!
Ivone Gebara, the Vatican ought to be silenced awhile . . .
Presente!
Aspiring, poets, scribes, chroniclers, essayists,
Trans-genred writers. . .
Presente!
Dan Berrigan, embodiment of the resurrection:
“Six times down, seven times up” . . .
Presente!
Unabashed talkers, dialectical questioners,
nimble conversationalists, chatter-orgiasts. . .
Presente!
Giovani Falcone, may justice be done . . .
Presente!
Noam Chomsky, irreplaceable iconoclast . . .
Presente!
Visionary activists and shit-disturbing demonstrators,
Interferers with empire . . .
Presente!
Teka Childress, Jesus would sit at your feet . . .
Presente!
Adjunct professors who can barely pay their bills,
much less buy the books their soul needs for sustenance. . .
Presente!
Chico Mendes, defiant unionist and holy ecologist . . .
Presente!
Tireless & spritely campus ministers, all denominations. . .
Presente!
Roy Bourgeois, “new name same shame, close down the SOA”. . .
Presente!
Friends for the long haul, prophetic incarnations,
razzmatazz rememberers,
Presente!
Carlos Belo, may we speak as boldly as you . . .
Presente!
Judaic advocates of tikkun olam &
great refusers of bitterness and cynicism. . .
Presente!
Sheri Hostetler, poet and preacher, sister of beatitude
who explored Cambridge and Berkeley streets with me . . .
Presente!
Closeted gay, lesbian, bi & transgendered Christas and Christs. . .
Presente!
Undergraduate students, with verve for all-night reading
for the pleasure of losing and finding oneself. . .
Presente!
Allen Ginsberg, gregarious galvanizer,
I miss you in Moloch . . .
Presente!
Mothers & fathers the nurturers of the next generation
of mechaiahs and photographers and translators
among tongues and tribes. . .
Presente!
Penny Lernoux and all journalists who go to the edge,
who report with a biased and broken heart . . .
Presente!
Janey Prejean, you were right, it took years …
Presente!
Visitation nuns, wise teachers of teens . . .
Presente!
Elie Wiesel, remember and live, remember or die. . .
Presente!
Young feminists, mavens of mischief and articulators of outrage. . .
Presente!
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose vision of Haiti and the world
is one where the children are counted . . .
Presente!
Graduate students in theology on faith’s edge of the abyss of doubt. . .
Presente!
Marc Ellis, who had the idea to honor Gustavo in 1988
at Maryknoll where I met a 5’2’ Sicilian scorcher . . .
Presente!
Inconsolable parents who have lost a child through accident, disease,
hunger, war. . .
Presente!
Steve Kelly, dissident and companero of Yeshua. . .
Presente!
Joanie French, beloved best in all hemispheres . . .
Presente!
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