4/10/94- prayer

                            prayer
 
 I am caught within my own web
 The waiting for the food continues
 And all I can think about is snowplows
 Flashing blue lights in Canada that won't cross the border
 It's cousin pushing watery mud and stone along Mulholland
 Metal on asphalt scrapes my ears
 And my childhood returns
 
 Lying in a cold room, warm beneath many mis-matched blankets
 Hearing the gears change, the truck turning
 I know which way it is pointed, which bank has grown
 The lessening friction in my head points down the two lane road
 
 I have seen a warm fire through the phone lines
 In a glen I've never been
 Huddled, cloaked and pondering
 As naked as arriving souls are
 The travelers warm themselves eagerly
 The temperature is different at each seat
 The weather overhead can not be agreed on
 But that is not a prime concern
 
 Allow me to show you inside
 In a place where no structures exist
 There is no more vulnerable shelter
 In this glen or on this run
 I am warm within you
 You are touched by smiles
 The food arrives without a platter
 And we devour it without swallowing
 It is soaked in through the skin
 
 My ears fill with water
 My eyes with light and heat
 My mouth with only praise and love
 My hunger drifts away
 
 Brake bread with me, my brothers
 Drink in it all, my sisters
 Join me in thanks to the one who brings
 Us all together now;
 
 
 
 And say a prayer for the dirt
 And say a prayer for the silt
 And say a prayer for the dust
 That someday we all will be
 
 And say a prayer for all those
 Who went before us selflessly
 And say a prayer for all those
 Who will follow in our drying footsteps
 
 They are the ones who need it most
 They are the ones who need the toast
 They are the ones from our own loins
 and our hearts and our minds
 
 We are in awe of you.