Saturday book feature — Church Ladies — Renee Emerson

Prayer Chain

Upstairs, my children sleeping
in silence wrung from night hours,
the lamplight a cloak, I pray each name,
earnest and fearful, I pray for wars,
their endings and beginnings.

I can ask what I ask.
He will give what he gives.

My neighbor dies of cancer, a gunman
in a synagogue; the trees turn colors slowly
this year; we pay all our bills on time.

A note in the planner next to a chore,
an appointment, prayer becomes both
and neither, pray, pray that life
changes and stays the same, pick it over
like fruit at market, hold the bruises up to God.

by Renee Emerson from Church Ladies (Fernwood Press, 2023)

Cover designer: Mareesa Fawver Moss

buy link: https://www.fernwoodpress.com/2023/05/19/church-ladies/