Poetry

Eric Enters Sunday School

by Don Erickson

(Lesson #1)

Mother Melissa and Father Phil took this day (A fall day) small, evidently unfallen Eric — Too young to have told a lie, much less Swear, or hit a brother on the head — To a church where some reverend person Wet his head one, two, three times, And distracted even his parents With words and more words concerning some Ancient baby, some other first-born son, Who — apparently — was bigger, or Had a greater family, including a bird... .

“He’ll understand it, someday;” Someone said that. They even Promised to be sure he understood, Said they’d all help raise him to understand That he’s not (what they always say he is) All a good boy. They said he’ll do evil, Set his own will against that other Baby’s will, or Father’s (well, why not?) And then can be forgiven. The given part — He understood that — he’d be given...given what?

Sitting at the center, being the center (So far as he knows) of everything, Baby Eric wondered why he was wearing Brand new clothes again, and why so many people Came up and cooed as usual, but seemed Today not quite to be seeing him. They seemed to see, partly, themselves, As if he were every baby, not just one; As if they (half, or maybe more) believed Some other idea of center, or of everything, Denying all — except love — that Eric so far knew. — Don Erickson, October 20, 1991