THE BOYS OF ALDONA


by Antonio Gomes, MD



The Church of ornate biblical murals,
frescoes of a man ascending Heaven,
a sinner woman pulled by the black-tailed
devil into Dante's Hell. Statues of Saints,
studded with Ceylon rubies, and African gold.
The legend goes: The Church assaulted
by robbers warned at the entrance
by a ten year old, not to rob the jewelry
of the Church offered by the peasants
to the patron Saint of the Old World.
The warning unheeded, the Church was robbed.

The bells toll mysteriously, the robbers flee.
Some drown in the river
that saps at the feet of St. Thomas's Church.
The leader taken past the Altar,
identified the statue of St. Thomas:
the boy he met in front of the Church.

April 27, 1958: the Vicar relates the legend
on the court-yard pulpit. The procession
circles the market square and enters the Church.
There a boy dressed in a sharkskin suit,
sees a boy, in rags, in prayer, an orphan
with no place to go. The rich boy
stretches a hand.    Hand in Hand
they glide to the fair, take rides,
eat sweat meats. The rich boy pays.

At dusk the feast ends it is time to go home.

They say good-bye and walk away
each looks back and sees the other
as they walk away waving at each other,
they seem to come closer to each other

until, they walk Home together.

Notes::  Aldona, is a village in Goa; Ceylon is the original name for Sri Lanka.