Dawn Potter: Confused Prayer

Faith is a tattered blanket in this age

of fear: a drape of old skin, soul’s girth

swelling with sugar-song, a late-stage

hymn soldering heaven to earth:

.

Engines mocking grace, a chief sinner’s sour

breath, turgid air and guns and tiers

of empty seats, a hundred tweets an hour:

God’s waiting room, fouled with jeers:

.

Fog spreading skirts over the city; a wet-salt kiss;

ordinary patience, a tiny hope-chest

of wonders, a mirror shrouded in mist;

our two bodies alive, awake, undressed:

.

Cow-bells clanking in the summer dark. Hearts’ blood

Pulsing, pulsing. Brown doves crooning in a quiet wood.

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Dawn Potter’s many books include Chestnut Ridge (Deerbrook, 2019).

Copyright 2020 Dawn Potter.