Today I Pray

Today I pray for anger
For burning indignation,
Acid bubbling in my stomach’s core

For desolation at the violation
Of bodies as though they’re properties,
For fury against those who salvage statues
At the expense of living flesh

Today I pray for discontented empathy
For anguish that moves me
That shakes me and prods me until I groan,
Because it is not my own lips
But another’s who moan

Today I pray for rage sustained
For the righteous temper
That retches thoughts and prayers
As half-baked answers

I pray for resentment
Of the audacity of men who bemoan G-d’s hand
When it is they themselves
Who spill blood on the land

[sc name="ad-300x600"]

Today I pray for frustration
That crackles and burns
Until it transforms
Into unrelenting action,
Persistent, insistent as a downpour
Eroding the stubbornest of stones

Today I pray
That my prayers
Boomerang back to me
That G-d spits them back down,
That- like lightning- they strike me
Revive me, till I lift myself
From the ground

Today I pray for the strength
To pry the prayer-book
From my palms, 
And with the ire of my arms
Craft my own praising psalms

I pray for the hubris
To unclasp our pleading hands
Until we ourselves
Have built

Our own Promised Land