Ghazal: With Prayer

The herons were no longer safe in the sky. They flew with prayer,

then fell to us. We hid them from the cats. What to do with prayer?

Decades after the civil war, we enter the sniper’s hole, sew

the sandbags, read words for his boyfriend on the wall, true with prayer.

Write my name & invite me to a wedding. I want a parade

of cars with flashers on, each blinking red, two times two with prayer.

Dear Eurydice, what good a heart that can’t resist looking back?

Foolish, music-laden Orpheus. Almost saved you with prayer.

In the museum of memory, the missing accumulate.

They shoot out of the tiles like grass blades, damp & new with prayer.

I found a photo in a library book: lovers holding hands.

I felt chosen, then lost it. & I didn’t pursue with prayer.

When I interviewed God, I said I moved the plants toward the light,

forgot the water. Is love a lack, always imbued with prayer?

Tarot cards, make me beautiful. Abundance me, O Three of Cups,

spin luck O Wheel of Fortune, I’m through, I’m through, I’m through with prayer.