On Good Friday, Jazz, Winton Marsalis & Abrego-Garcia

 On Good Friday, Jazz, Winton Marsalis & Abrego Garcia

Then and now, malice & cruelty 

keep company with law & justice.

When I was a child and first heard

the story of Good Friday, I thought

it horrifying. I wanted to stamp my feet 

& block my ears.  Was I expected to imitate 

Jesus?  Was it, is it, right, meekly 

to accept injustice & torture? Doesn’t 

that strengthen injustice & evil!?

Dramatically, the narrator highlighted

the cruel details of Jesus’s crucifixion.   

I thought I might vomit.  “Good” Friday?!?!  

Wasn’t irony supposed to be clever?

I don’t now remember how my

Sunday School teacher dealt with 

my outraged objections, but I know 

that on Morning Joe today I heard 

marvelous Winton Marsalis recount

the impact of a jazz festival upon  

its young participants, how together 

they stayed open to riffs from peers 

and wove them into the fabric of their 

unique, ex temporized, musical 

compositions.  I thought about my

friend Peter’s poem wishing he could

write a poem as freely as he could 

improvise on his harmonica.  That 

poem taught me more about jazz and 

the joy of creating art together. People 

need to know about the collaboration 

that is possible when we are open to it. 

But I’m still thinking of the horror of 

crucifixion, for all of 

those crucified-- I just can’t/won’t 

acquiesce to balancing out the human 

ugliness of Good Friday with that old 

three-days-late-Resurrection. However,  

I've always loved singing along with an 

all-stops-out-organ blasting the Easter hymn, 

Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, Alleluia!   

In my New-for-Easter-Patent-Leather-Mary-Janes, 

I stood tall, put ecstasy into each Alleluia!  

just as our teacher had directed.   

But this year I'm so sad about Trump's Gang

recent migrant had been deported 

by The Trump Gang's Mistake-- no proof 

of wrong doing, no trial, but the innocent 

Abrego-Garcia, father & husband, had 

been deported into the cruel custody of 

El Salvador’s worst prison nonetheless.  

No Alleluias from me this year!  Trump 

has done NOTHING to get Garcia home!  

Supreme Court order be damned! 

Citizens, arise! Back to the Streets!    

Make More Signs! Make more noise!

And Pray for those farther & farther away… 

All those disappeared.

—Sef, 4/18/2025