If life is a prayer

If life is a prayer                                                                                         

You stood up for us – even towards the end

when You couldn’t walk without help.

Insisted on Eruch reading the prayers

and You rose to participate,

mandali on either side for support,

gesturing for Eruch to go ever faster

because of the strain.  You are

named Ezad the only one worthy of worship.

If life is a prayer I am nearing my amen.

Early on, as I was making it up, seemingly

without support from You, it never amounted

to more than a periodic, desperate plea. 

But over the years, You’ve shown me how to pray,

(not done with me yet), incrementally

changing the heart of my prayers from I to You,

a metaphor for You becoming more and more

the heart of whoever it is offering my prayer

to Whoever it is Who receives it.

O child of God, the perfect prayer is a silent,

continuous obeisance from the very core.