J U N E 1 9 9 7
LEARNING HOW TO PRAY
by Cathy Smith BowersAlso by Cathy Smith Bowers:
"The Entry" (1995)
Go to:
An Audible Anthology
Poetry Pages
When I heard my brother
was dying youngest
of the six of us our
lovely boy I who in matters
of the spirit
had been always suspect
who even as a child
snubbed Mama's
mealtime ritual
began finally to
pray and fearing
I would offend
or miss completely
the rightful target of my pleas
went knocking everywhere
the Buddha's huge
and starry churning Shiva
Vishnu Isis the worn
and ragged god of Ishmael
I bowed to the Druid reverence
of trees to water fire
and wind prayed to weather
to carbon that sole link
to all things
this and other worldly
our carbon who art in heaven
prayed to rake and plow
the sweet acid stench of dung
to fly to the fly's soiled
wing and to the soil
I could not stop
myself I like a nymphomaniac
the dark promiscuity
of my spirit there
for the taking whore
of my breaking heart willing
to lie down with anything.
Cathy Smith Bowers is the author of The Love That Ended Yesterday in Texas (1992).
Copyright © 1997 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved.
The Atlantic Monthly; June 1997; Learning How to Pray; Volume 279, No. 6; page 98.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |