Toddler

Toddler                                                                                                 
 
Each morning I say the Prayers –
I have for years – words well worn,
 
rolling off my tongue slightly sweet – like prasad.
I begin earnestly but, soon my mind
 
drifts away like a lost kite; like a boy
gazing from his classroom window
         
or a toddler nodding off in the church pew.
Would anyone fault that schoolboy 
 
for preferring the day’s green pleasures?
Or the child wandering off to dreamland
 
under a preacher’s sonorous tones?
I go easy on myself, saying the words You left,
 
trying to keep awake, trying to stay focused
on the blackboard at the head of the class.
 
O child of God, it’s arrogant to consider yourself more
than a toddler playing at the Master’s feet.

                                (from  A Jewel in the Dust, 2011)