Fresh Dirt from the Grave by Giovanna Rivero

Author:Giovanna Rivero
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fresh dirt from the grave;Giovanna Rivero;charco press
Publisher: Charco Press
Published: 2023-03-15T16:35:36+00:00

DONKEY SKIN

It goes like this

The fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah.

Leonard Cohen

My name is Nadine Ayotchow and I’ve been singing in the Niagara Church gospel choir in this beautiful town of Clarence for many years. Thirty, or something like that. I don’t have a favourite song because they all help us to express different moments of this existence so full of trials and falls. But if you insist, I really like Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. My life has been exactly what he pronounces in his prayer: ‘the minor fall’. Hallelujah is a song that takes me back to the incredible years I’m going to tell you all about in our assembly today.

I have a little house down by the river, but I come into town for choir practice and celebrations. I haven’t always lived in Buffalo. Before I made it here, to the home that the Lord had planned for me all along, I had to live in cold houses, in trailer parks, in poorhouses, shelters, basements and the backs of trucks. I should also tell you all that in the prehistory of my life I lived in the heart of South America and I was meant to be someone else, but the Lord’s work on my existence brought me here and everything has worked out well. God took my heathen fate and turned it into this procession of calm days. It’s true that the fear is still there, but it’s also true that I have my voice to sing and fend off the fear. There’s no other way to get it out of my head. I know that in a few days, when they extract that pernicious growth, the one that rises from my pituitary gland and lies in wait for my pineal gland, the Lord will defend my talent, my song, and maybe the most important pieces of my memory, too.

I’m grateful to our preacher, Jeremy, for joining me for this talk. I feel so overcome… No, that’s not what I want to convey… It’s such a great honour to know that you consider my treatment a case of medical importance. I wish I’d prepared myself better to tell you this humble story, but Preacher Jeremy insists that time, too, is a gift from God, especially in my case. You all know me, and you know that I’m not a well-read person, my education is only modest and it’s based, above all, on the spiritual values that the Niagara Church has taught me over the years. That’s right, I really enjoy the short books from our Theological Canon. Their language is simple, and the examples of major triumphs over the weaknesses of this existence are astonishing. Those little books keep me company and inspire me with wonderful ideas that influence the subjects of my dreams. There are phases when I dream of my mother often; then for months I forget about her and devote my time to dreaming of animals, of new lyrics for hymns, or of long and winding roads.

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