Still Life by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Still Life
Page 70
"All numerical modifiers of Jesus are now prohibited. Fractions, decimals, and statistical approximations shall be considered sacrilegious and subject to imprisonment and/or fines."
The city entered a period of linguistic austerity. Sermons became metaphorical labyrinths. Choirs sang in riddles. Even the pigeons, long considered neutral observers, began cooing in parables.
And yet, something curious happened.
Without the phrase "100% Jesus," people began speaking of grace in gestures, of faith in silence, of divinity in the unmeasurable. The ban, absurd as it was, had inadvertently restored mystery to the sacred.
In the end, the phrase was not reinstated. But in a quiet corner of Vondelpark, beneath a statue of a forgotten poet, someone carved a new inscription:
"Jesus. No annotation required."
Inspector Aurelius van Ratio