Fingering the Prayer

We climbed on the wheel
And gave our two cents worth
Private little petitions
For salvation

I feel funny making
Public
My private demands
Making motions
In the stirrings of the heart
For congregational consumption
Is it not enough to mock
The benefactors
Of a peaceful existence
By calling attention
To the inadequacies
Of my own devotional life
My own failings
As a witness to god’s mercy
And benevolence?

No, the order of the most peaceful
Heart is shattered by
Surprise.
Disrupted in moody
Meditation
By the continual,
Relentless
Encroachment
And forward march
Of man.


-jim hill (4-22-02)