Prayers
I used to pray for a faith that wouldn't prove facade
a savior that thought me as something sacred enough to not be
scarred
I prayed hard.
thinking that the tighter I clasped
my fist
the more God I could squeeze out.
But No one taught me how to pray.
My mom was too scared to even enter a church
My grandma knew jesus turned water into wine
And thought she could find him again in the bottom of a bottle
And my dad answered my calls just as much as god did
So I prayed like everyone else.
Too much
And not enough
Then i noticed a trend
I spent so much time on knees
That i forgot what i should be standing up for
I forgot sermons and sacrifice don't always satisfy
Especially when prayer isn't done for both sides.
The thing about some people's prayers
Are that they are half empty glasses of holy water
Pessimistic and partial
Partisan pipe dreams
Meant to save from sin
But who do they really pray for?
It is said to love thy neighbor
But sometimes our prayers do not always touch thy neighbor.
Like homophobia does
like islamophobia does
like racism does
like sexism does
How can some people hope
For sunshine and rainbows
And then have the nerve to pray the gay away?
Hands who worship like Westboro
Wield hypocrisy
And a hatred not suitable for holy
They’ll pray for their daughter
To find a husband she’ll love
But take back their god
If she loves her wife more.
They’ll pray
that their son
grows up to be anything but their daughter
then slaughter her like a lamb as a sacrifice to bring him back
But by all means pray
Some of us are still praying for 9/11 victims
But which ones?
When manhattan mimicked
a sodom and gomorrah war zone
And 2 pillars of salt came crashing down in a
holy mess of terror
We prayed for the lives lost to
Jet fuel
And rubble
Yet not the ones who are still covering their heads
From the licks of fiery tongues
Where are the prayers for the muslims?
Some of us are still praying against terrorism
But from whom?
Some of our prayers do not differentiate
The murderer and the murdered if their God is the same
If their dialect deems demolition to our deity.
We’ll send prayer to our soldiers in the middle east
But the brown bodied war on both sides of the ocean
Must be too blasphemous for beseechment
But by all means pray
Some people’s prayers only come in the form of white male
Where are the prayers for the black women?
For the black moms
With spines like bibles
And feet like arks
who spend all their prayers
Making sure the horizon does not swallow their sons before sunrise
Pray for the black women who get preyed on
who get choked by the cracks in the concrete
And scream like chainsaws
But their deaths still speak in whispers
Please pray for the the black men
But pray more for the black girls
With ribs like Adams
And faces like Aiyana.
Renisha
Sandra
pray for the black girls with mental illnesses without praying off their mental illnesses
Pray for the black girls that were taught to pray for you.
Before some secular sinister
Makes a grenade out of a 16th baptist church
and 4 little girls who are dressed like easter
Right before Columbus Day
But by all means pray.
I don’t want to discourage your prayers
But if you choose to keep holy in your fingertips
Make sure your nails are clean.
Make sure all your graces to god
Speak in multiple tongues
Don’t just preach to the choir
Without singing for the unsung
by all means pray
But make sure your prayers encompass everyone.