In Your Reverie

Angel from the Pit Reckons
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Copyright © 2009 Andrew Minase

 

Once God created my soul in the dark,
In the shadow of the Christ whom I may never see;
Yet I’m also a child of the Holy Mother of God.

 

In this world, I was an offspring of a defiled king,
To whose throne I might never become an heir;
For I was born of the mother of the great whoredom.

 

If that’s the state of my kinship with you at all,
I’d convince myself that I must obey that rule;
Because I can still fathom your existence and make sense of your words.

 

But for once, if I may ask you, my Lord, recreate me in the Light!
Grant me my wish to be your angel – the agent of your love and peace;
For I know that even I can love and serve the Lord.

 

Make me rise and shine in bright daylight,
In exchange for what I got – or no matter what it takes;
Until the time of your justice and judgment on my road back to perdition.

 

[End of Text]

Bug me once, I’ll hit you! – Twice
Guess who’s talking behind a new tenant
A Report from Hell’s Kitchen
© Copyright 2008 Andrew Minase

 

A:  Hey, cous! Look at you – what’s going on? Was looking for you all over the house – was worried.
B:  Nah, nothing… I was just thrown out of the window.
A:  Done by whom? Him?
B:  Yeah. He caught me off guard.
A:  Heard he made a truce. We won’t bother him, he’s not gonna exterminate us.
B:  Didn’t guarantee that.
A:  As long as we stay calm…
B:  Somebody broke the pact already.
A:  Who did? The nimble clan?
B:  One of ’em went up to his bed and kissed him on the mouth.
A:  Yuck! Those sick opportunistic bastards!
B:  The mischievous sort.
A:  This is our house. We don’t move an inch.
B:  You’re the slow clan. You guys are just sitting there all day.
A:  I have a right.
B:  He’d kill you for that.
A:  Oh, does he?
B:  He’s already come after us and killed many of us – spared only few.
A:  Well, you got lucky. He stepped out of his way to save you!
B:  A judgment call.
A:  Heard he’s a nicer guy. He’d never raise fingers on others, especially the little guys.
B:  Who told you that?
A:  Those guys, you know, from East Village.
B:  They visit you?
A:  Heard he got kicked out of the neighborhood, he’s in the street, and now he ends up crashing in a place like this.
B:  In Hell’s Kitchen!
A:  The last resort.
B:  Oh, here he comes! He’s back.
A:  Welcome home, dear!
B:  Shhh! He doesn’t want us to be here.
A:  We have a life here. He can’t compromise that.
B:  It’s getting complicated. It ain’t easy in here.
A:  What’re you gonna do? Beg him to ‘Be my friend, Godfather’?
B:  Oh, will you?
A:  I don’t give a f_ck. I’m not hiding anymore.
B:  Oh, then you’re gonna say ‘Hi’? Give him a big kiss and a hug?
A:  What’re you talking about? Jeez!
B:  Getting religious already.
A:  Yeah, I got a message to deliver – ‘Love Your Enemy.’
B:  Then go and kiss him goodnight, will you!
A:  Over my dead body.
B:  Yeah, you’ll be dead if you do that, for sure.
A:  We ain’t pets. Period.
B:  The pests.
A:  Oh, whatever they call…

 

[End of Text]

Stained Glass Lord
Copyright © 2007 Andrew Minase
Sunday, May 13, 2007

I didn’t ask the chaos fairy for keeping my heart trembled. Not for this long…
Last night I felt the tooth fairy kept numbing my mind. And I still have that feeling today…

The congregation recites the ordinary; and this time I’d skip the first two:
We remember his death, we proclaim his resurrection, we await his coming in glory…

Hey, wait! We wait his coming..., what’re we talking ‘bout? He’s already here!

I looked up the stained glass wall over the high alter again.
As the entire congregation below was busy looking down with their eyes following the text, the portrait of the Lord Christ was brimming.
And I saw that for the first time – my first time in how many years? I saw Him at last.
The picture of his right hand, if I was not mistaken, was waving to me…

And who’s that figure, at your right hand corner of the glass wall? I had noticed that the sunlight was shining through that part of the window. The light was coming through that particular saint figure, and it lasted throughout the communion service. And I wondered why: why not shining through the picture of you? Why that figure, and who’s that represent?

“This is you,” who, me?

I was standing by the edge of the communion rail, leaning on the pillar at your right hand corner of the sanctuary. Today I had found my spot.
And I was seeing the huge stained glass window reflecting what’s underneath… as if I was in the mirror, and you let the light shed on me today.

I had asked for confirmation; the acknowledgment of my deeds and wishes and desires…, and you just gave it to me. It must be me in the backlight… or a mirrored illumination of my true self to be, if that’s not an illusion.
I quietly left the church. I thought I would tell no one about this.

Wandering on the sidewalk by the church yard, I said to myself, it’s got to be something… oh, how exciting!
Then a yellow cab passed by, turning the corner by swerving around me. The driver was yelling at someone or something saying “Chill it, chill it, man! Chill it, O.K.?”
And I thought that would be me, too.

[End of Text]

Capturing the images from a dream I had is no easy task. I don't think 16.7 million colors used in our 24-bit world of computer graphics can ever be enough to illustrate those pictures so vivid and surreal that I could see them with my eyes shut. Although I may never be able to reproduce those images, I'd be happy to be able to convey their meanings in my own writings and drawings, because those dreams are my precious experience of the unknown...