Prayer

dear lord in this time of darkness
help us see the darkness

dear lord help us to not pretend
no more pretending

dear lord may our gaze be defenseless
and unshardable

teach us the piety of the open eye

dear lord in this time of darkness
may we be unafraid to mourn and together and hugely

may dignity lose its scaffolding
faces crumble like bricks

dear lord let grief come to grief

and then o lord help us to see the bees yet in the lavender
the spokes of sunlight down through the oaks

and the sleep-opened face of the beloved
and the afternoon all around her
and her small freckled hands

Teddy Macker is the author of the collection of poetry This World (White Cloud Press, 2015; foreword by Brother David Steindl-Rast). His writing appears in the Antioch ReviewNew Letters, the Seneca ReviewThe Massachusetts ReviewThe SunTin House, and various anthologies. He lives with his wife and daughters on a farm in Carpinteria, California, where he maintains an orchard.