Prayer – a poem by Jonathan K. Rice

Prayer

Evening prayer
inhabits the chapel
where I kneel

as wind blows
purple wisteria
outside the heavy
wood door.

God listening perhaps
through top heavy oaks

whose roots
crack sidewalk,
street, water main,

baptizing
the neighborhood,
the ground,
my shoes, my feet.

I plod off
through the night,
the mud,
the darkness.

Jonathan K. Rice edited Iodine Poetry Journal for seventeen years. He is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Killing Time (2015), Ukulele and Other Poems (2006) and a chapbook, Shooting Pool with a Cellist (2003), all published by Main Street Rag Publishing. He is also a visual artist. His work has appeared in numerous publications. Jonathan is the recipient of the 2012 Irene Blair Honeycutt Legacy Award for outstanding service in support of local and regional writers, awarded by Central Piedmont Community College. He lives in Charlotte, NC.