Easter Reading Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Easter Reading

In Lima – Peru- a hippo was pulling the tram car with
its best friend a water buffalo. They had ended up
here, far from Africa, after the great flood ebbed and
had been blessed with eternal life, only being mere
animals they didn´t know this. In Lima no one made
a big issue of this, but when the wider world knew
and some adventurers set about trying to kill the pair,
in vain, the Lima people took another look, especially
since the church thought they were the devil´s own
handiwork and god would never had allowed beasts
besting man. Angry people took to hurling mud and
stones at the animals, also calling them rude names.
From the mountain came a man dressed in white
burnoose, and spoke to the people:
“For years you respected my creation, the hippo and
the water buffalo, with respect and care I thought
well of you and decided that the archbishop of Lima,
when time was right, would be the new pope, but you
have disappointed me greatly; hence the new pope
will be the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina”.
The man, in a white burnoose paused… and said: “It is
also, time you electrified the tram system.”