An Ethiopian archbishop on TV
Told the story of Bob Marley’s baptism;
The cleric said the singer-songwriter
Saw him as a kind of father.
After the ritual,
The priest told the interviewer,
Marley wept profusely
For a long time.
Philosophers do not agree
On why we cry and laugh;
They may signal a loss or gain of values,
Some say.
What Marley may have felt he lost or gained
After that rite
We may never know;
And he himself might not have known
How to express it
Even in song;
For there are things
That neither life nor art can say.
Was it his anticipated liberation
From too many troubles in the world?
The trauma of road blocks?
The Babylon System?
Not enough One-Love on his island
And in the world around him?
Was it finding a room, finally,
In his father’s house?
In one of his best-loved songs
He asked his woman not to cry;
But now he cried,
And it is not recorded
That anyone asked him not to.