The Fly’s Prayer
A fly joins me at the three-legged table.
She appears to be divining, her miniscule
forearms bent in supplication, her head
steadied millimeters from where our dinner
is served. Many years ago, when anxiety
raged in my chest like a lion,
I went to study meditation
with a Buddhist monk. Every Monday,
I’d sit in that stiff metal chair
and listen to his high voice recount
the inevitability of death, the humanity
of suffering and the constancy of meditation.
I’d close my eyes and try to hear
the silence. When I opened them again,
this man’s eyes met mine, and I saw,
in that moment, his burning
sanctity like the center
of the sun. Now, as I gaze
at the fly, I see that same fiery
core, and I want to love her
before she flies away.
Sonya Schneider is a playwright and poet living in Seattle, WA. Her poetry can be found or is forthcoming in 3Elements, ONE ART, Naugatuck River Review, Catamaran, SWWIM, West Trestle Review, Eunoia Review and MER VOX, among others. She was a finalist for the 2022 New Letters Patricia Cleary Miller Award for Poetry and her micro chapbook, Hunger, was shortlisted for Harbor Review’s 2023 Jewish Women’s Prize. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Pacific University’s MFA in Poetry.
Amethyst Review 