⚓ The Day After Mardi Gras / March 2025
Best viewed on your computer or phone's dark mode screen
~ Fiction ~
Roman à clef, cher.
Created A. I. free
by Leonard Earl Johnson
of Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana
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March 2025
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Dedication
Born: Mardi Gras Day, February 6, 1951
Died: Carnival Time, February 12, 2025
May you dine in peace
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Continuation of the Red Women Warriors Series
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Copyright, 2025, Leonard Earl Johnson, All Rights Reserved
On Ash Wednesday ~ all over Louisiana ~ Carnival lifts its joyful mantle exposing Lent's ashen trail leading us off the streets and into forty days of Vatican sanctioned smudge.
Waiting The Sign of The Cross smeared on their foreheads with Priestly thumbs dipped in the burnt ashes of the previous Palm Sunday's Palms.
In Lafayette, Silvia talks with the big red-hatted supporter of The Donald just now off the train from Houston. They stand outside Rêve Coffee Roasters, across from Amtrak's Rosa Parks Centré loading platform.
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| Abandoned Railroad Baggage Wagon Photo credit, Charles M. Johnson |
The Day After Mardi Gras
Ash Wednesday
and the Forty Days of Lent
by Leonard Earl Johnson
© 2025, Leonard Earl Johnson,
All Rights Reserved~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~
Ash Wednesday
and the Forty Days of Lent
by Leonard Earl Johnson
© 2025, Leonard Earl Johnson,
All Rights Reserved
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Zamboni street sweepers wash
the city streets; and Cajun chickens stretch their necks up to see if it is safe to resume Life.
Inside churches, brothels, and bars we tremble with fears and doubts. Yet we suffer no doubt about this ceremony.
Inside churches, brothels, and bars we tremble with fears and doubts. Yet we suffer no doubt about this ceremony.
Faithful and nonbeliever alike know it is Lent, and
to ashes we shall return.
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| Banana Tree / photo credit: Deb Kohler |
Yet, it is the longest 'holiday' of The Faith.
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Should you need a reason to be suspicious of evangelical religion's temporal powers consider that.
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"In such acts we find sad truths" ~ L.A. Norma.
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| Clearing the Liturgical Air |
Next day, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent's never-changing season of suffering.
"The Gregorian Calendar," L. A. Norma laments to a bewildered tourist sharing our pedicab, "with Easter changing with the moon, is none too accurate!
"The Gregorian Calendar," L. A. Norma laments to a bewildered tourist sharing our pedicab, "with Easter changing with the moon, is none too accurate!
"For instance, in the secular world you have leap year, and Sadie Hawkins Day!"
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Easter Sunday marks Lent's end, and also welcomes Spring.
It is a holliday 'borrowed' long long ago, by the marauding legions of Rome.
Borrowed from religions they happened upon that had been beating those same drums before Rabbi Jesus took His show on the road.
Spring / Easter may be the oldest celebration calculated (or miscalculated) into Canon Law. With instruments created out of faith in suffering and suspicion of pleasure.
Spring / Easter may be the oldest celebration calculated (or miscalculated) into Canon Law. With instruments created out of faith in suffering and suspicion of pleasure.
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| Beansprout |
Lenten fasting knits Carnival's raveled sleeve and prepares us for Spring's rebirth. Like the bean sprout and the jazz man say:
"Blow the roof off the sucker"
𝅘𝅥𝅮 📯💥🎺𝅘𝅥𝅯
It is a good Lent this year, with sunny mornings and a warm place in the kitchen to read Internet posts and sip coffee.
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| Photo credit: Eric Douglas |
Then they change from old dark green to young soft green almost overnight.
Today soft-green rules coastal Louisiana, and we old alligators lie on the banks in whatever sun we can find, dreaming of Easter baskets and Spring.
Today soft-green rules coastal Louisiana, and we old alligators lie on the banks in whatever sun we can find, dreaming of Easter baskets and Spring.
(A lesser version of this story first appeared in 2004)
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Copyright, 2025, Leonard Earl Johnson
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Copyright, 2025, Leonard Earl Johnson
all rights reserved
For more L. E. J.'s Louisiana, Yours Truly in a Swamp go to
www.LEJ.world
www.LEJ.world
Your comments and corrections are welcome
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© 2025, Leonard Earl Johnson,
All Rights Reserved.
~ to be continued ~
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They are posted on the first of each month and polished for the next few years. .JPG) ~ ~ ~ LEJ's Louisiana, Yours Truly in a Swamp is a monthly e-column @ www.LEJ.world, Hosted by GOOGLE BLOGGER, and historically at Les Amis de Marigny, New Orleans publication of the It is written by Leonard Earl Johnson of Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana www.LEJ.world ✍ |
posted by LEJ's Louisiana | 7:39 AM
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