The Ecphorizer

Cymbals of Easter
Russ Traunstein

Issue #64 (March 1987)

Bursting lily,
fecund bunny,
Easter symbols —
so is money!

The cross, the egg,
the rising sun:
and ash and palm
and hot-cross bun!

New clothes, parades,
the farmer's plow;
egg hunts, charades,
Oberammergau.

Retreats, novenas,
black abstention;
mother's necessity
for invention.

Symbolic cymbals
to wake us up,
around communion's
loving cup.

And simple stories
for little folks,
with sometimes funny
symbol jokes, like:

What do you get,
 when ya shouldn't oughta,
sprinkle a bunny
with hot holy water?

Well, cymbally speaking,
if not symbolically funny,
you get a wide-awake, steaming,
holy, hot, cross bunny!


We kept RUSS TRAUNSTEIN's poem nearly a year, so we could publish it for Easter. Russ describes himself as a "radical therapist half-breed still seeking self-actualization..." He is also into dirt-biking.

More Articles by Russ Traunstein


Contributor Profile

Russ Traunstein

Poet RUSS TRAUNSTEIN lives and writes in Brighton, MA.