When you pray
You stand like a painting
Brush strokes, straight lines
Perpendicular back, a royal blue
Brown deep eyes brewed like
A barbecue of truth, marinated
With the anguish of life, grated
And squeezed, a penetrating
Lament, Your kind hands
Weaving fingers, interlocked
An antique courage, palms
Cupped into a void, open
Into which we endow, unalloyed
Our wishes, questions, poems
Like the summer rain that falls
Into our receiving senses, healing
The rise and fall of your voice, is
Courage, serving as your witness
You inhabit the air, boundless
In grace, holding your tears
Tightly behind your teeth
You pray, the rest of your words
Travel, flowing unabashed to
Spaces within us, a nectarine
Kashiana 