Four more coffins: Bashmuric song
Four more coffins ushered into the church.
Cries of grief:
Ya Rab! Ya Rab! Oh, Lord! Oh Lord!
Irhamna ya Allah, Have Mercy on us, oh God!
Priest sends the dead to paradise: Coptic martyrs of the Faith.
Loud ululations.
They’re added to the diptych of saints.
***
Tired gravediggers.
Stream of martyrs.
Not enough shrouds.
Justice shouts.
Woman shrieks:
When will it all come to end?
Who’ll save’s; defend our monasteries’ keeps?
***
When I’m reposed,
Entombed in my forefather’s vault
Let my epitaph be:
Died fighting;
Not victim’s but hero’s death.
Played the man,
For freedom and nation’s breath!
St. Mark Coptic Cathedral, Cairo, 7 April 2013
