We Pray Most Earnestly

We pray most earnestly: our breath
goes up, to Jesus and his family. Father,
mother; sometimes St. Joseph and the Saints
get into it: Listen to our petition.
It always strikes me as odd; like giving
water to a fountain-cherub, or coals
to that famous place that ends in ... castle,
while someone in a somewhere desert
tries to swallow once more, or
a blue-lipped child in an arctic
alley can't find a match;
or a skeleton stirs a garbage can.
The swindler, the cop whose heart
is in his night-stick; the candy-hand
of the molester; the boys who
work the torture cells, and happily eat;
the poisoner, betrayer, rapist; oafs
whose joy is in spotting the weak; the figure
that moves in the dark, meaning ill;
those waiting to be burned alive at
6 a.m., with reason if not mercy;
sadists, patient to find
small animals; all go scathe-
less of our clean-faced prayers.
We pray in unison for our Bishop
(no harm in that) but have we
the time (pray without cease-
ing). Have we the time
for prayers that float to the vir-
tuous, the amiable with their guileless
faces; the families here
sitting in satisfaction, shoulder to shoulder?