Prayer

Prayer
( for the safety of all troops, whatever creed)

Can you tell I’m praying?
Asking for your help?
I may seem to be laughing, frowning, chatting to a friend.
Do you recognise my plea?
My quiet request?
I may look as though I’m driving, ironing or washing the car.
Will you hear my silent petition?
Heed my suit?
Even though I seem to be fully engaged in this material world.

Can you recognise that I am kneeling
Humbly,
My head bowed in supplication and
That every ordinary action is part of my prayer?
Look into my mind please,
Don’t make me form the dreadful words for
Words are
Powerful things
Full of might and portent
Beyond the mere gathering together of letters.

Ah – now I know you are listening
Does this superstition offend you?
Should I show more faith?

A half recalled phrase about birds of the field
Rises from the depths
Of lessons part remembered in a simpler life.
Part of a lesson in trust, imparted to an already trusting child.
I should know that you hold them in your palm, safe and warm and fed.
I should know that for us you would do at least as much.
That wide eyed child knew this. The child that is in me knows it still
And yet,
And yet,
And yet…

Just as the hawk must take
It’s share of the doomed surplus
In order to survive, must I accept that it is the same for us?
For do you not love the hawk as much
As its smaller, timid brother?

Don’t you know I’m praying?
Can’t you tell I’m asking?
Why expect me to solve this puzzle?
This was meant to be a prayer, a supplication, not an exercise in logic.
How can I do this and drive at the same time?


It’s evening now and I think I’ve learned the lesson.
Work is done .
My hands are still.
I turn my every thought to you.
Your stillness fills my mind
Now I’m at prayer
Look into my heart
The words are engraved there for you to find.