print previewback DAN O’BRIEN | Visitations, part 1
Theotokia
1 Holy Anger
MOTHER ANNE
A candle lay, a candle lay de lo.
A candle lay de lo, de loo.
And soon you’ll know
what no man ever knows.
CONGREGANT
I am the holy anger
of the Son.
Disguised to mend God’s broken mind.
My name
is Sacanala Vinda,
CHORUS OF CONGREGANTS
Sacanala Vinda.
Our name is something
we can’t tell you,
something you can’t know
yet.
2 There Is a Cave
YETI MOTHER
There is a cave
in the snowy heights
of the Himalayas.
Di lo la lo lo. Di lo la lo. Di lo la lo lo la di la loo. Ko lo ko ta.
I wait for you
in this dark warm cave
in the heights—
Ka re voo. Ka re ka re voo.
—in the heights
of the snowy Himalayas.
Ka va ka ne ko na.
I wait for you here.
Ka yee ka va tei vas sho ka. Ka yee ka va tei vas sho ka kas.
With my comfort,
with my love
I will guide you home.
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| From Theotokia. Photo by Joel Simon. |
3 Leon’s Lament
(LEON in a chair,
eyes closed,
slowly slapping his thighs.
The rhythm
steadies and speeds up
until it becomes a frenzied,
almost painful drumming,
both self-punishing
and musical.)
4 How Could He Say This to Me?
LEON’S MOTHER
Why
is he so angry at me?
He did everything I told him to.
Praying, all the time praying.
A good boy! A quiet boy! Nothing’s wrong!
I would come into his room
at night
and pray over his sleeping body.
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| From Theotokia. Photo by Joel Simon. |
I was trying
to enshroud a child
in love.
When he came home
from the war
he had this photograph of a girl
I’d never met.
Then one day
when I was at church
he packed his suitcase and left,
and when he came home
he was no son of mine.
On Good Friday
when I was at church again
he broke the necks of the white doves on the roof.
He broke my statues of the saints.
He smashed all of my statues
and threw my crucifixes
in the trash.
And he said,
There will be no gods before me.
And he said,
I am the only begotten son of God,
and my name is
Jesus Christ.
How could he say this
to me?
5 To Me . . .
LEON
to me to me to me
do this do this to me
to me to me to me
to to me
to me
to to tomorrow
to me to me tomorrow
tomb tomb ton ah ton ah
ton ga ton ga ton ga
don ga don ga don ga
don ga don ga don ga dong dong
dung
dung
dung
6 Dung!
YETI MOTHER
Dung! Dung! Dung!
Dung has self-contained energy!
Dung aids plants to grow!
Dung has a healthy smell that swells the air—ah!
where would the farmers be
without it?
The commode says,
Deposit in me.
And the Chinaman says, Honor mine today, indirect food
for tomorrow, most honored guest,
Dung!
Plowing-seeding-dunging-reaping—
Dung! Dung! Dung!
7 Song of the Yeti Mother
YETI MOTHER & CONGREGANTS
Have you never heard the story
about the people who have yet to
be discovered?
YETI MOTHER
Lu di a lu po!
CONGREGANTS
Whose bodies are much stronger
than a human person’s
body?
YETI MOTHER
Vo ne har ko no mei, ko no hu!
CONGREGANTS
Who are above the ape?
YETI MOTHER
Who are the missing link?
Kio bo he, ko lo he lu he!
YETI MOTHER & CONGREGANTS
Who live
in the snowy
Himalayas?
YETI MOTHER
Kio kio lu!
YETI MOTHER & CONGREGANTS
Who can lift a living yak
high above her head
and toss it like a sack of dung?
CONGREGANTS
Who does all these things and more?
YETI MOTHER
Vin du sa ka la!
I am your true mother,
Sakanala Vinda!
You can not run
from me.
I va ka re, I va ka ra lu!
I have been waiting
here for you
in this dark warm cave
in the snowy heights of
the Himalayas.
Where blinding snow white skin and hair have not been stained
by sin,
only by the blood of the rodent rat
of sin!
 |
| From Theotokia. Photo by Joel Simon. |
CONGREGANTS
Who love to eat
the raw red meat
of this rat of sin?
YETI MOTHER & CONGREGANTS
Who love to eat
the raw red meat
and shoot and stomp and squeeze and grip and bite
the living head of this rodent rat
of sin?
Come life,
Yeti life,
come life eternal.
YETI MOTHER
Shake, shake out of me
all that is carnal.
YETI MOTHER & CONGREGANTS
Run life,
Yeti life,
run life eternal.
Stamp, stomp out of you
all that is carnal.
Run life,
Yeti life,
run life eternal.
Stamp, stomp out of you
all that is carnal.
All that is carnal.
All that is carnal.
8 That Sane Men Never Know
MOTHER ANNE & CONGREGANTS
So now you know
we are God’s only children
and from Her holy anger
we must hide.
LEON
There is no cave . . .
MOTHER ANNE & CONGREGANTS
A candle lay,
A candle in your palm.
A candle lay,
A candle in your brain.
So many blessings
yet to come
that sane men never see.
LEON
There is no cave . . .
There are no Himalayas . . .
It is gone.
But where
am I
now?
I grope in the dark
and the people step on me.
I think, I hope.
But outside
who will I be
now? 
