Prayer

~ after Cecilia Woloch



Surely there is a plain over which
the promised snow will fall tonight,
and in those moments the world will look
unmarked: not edged with blood or war, not
heaving under chalk and rubble. Surely
the child who stumbled on the path finds
signs that point toward flourishing, and
sets her sights anew. Surely there are those
who still believe in the heart of a country,
in a country of the heart; and how one day
no one needs to run away. And if the gods
have turned aside, surely the ancestors
continue to keep watch— brushing the hair
out of our eyes, filling our lungs with
breath; holding our pulsing hearts in their
brown hands so we can see how beautifully
built they are, and not at all of gummy
paste and balled up newsprint.

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