Nice and New and Smart (a prayer for reprieve)

by Nixi Schroeder

Our Father/ who art

            all strength/

                        and size, i am/

            small/ i am

                        bird/ i am

           

            peeled and boneless

                        grapewhite,

           

hallowed be thy/ fingernails/

            split ends/

            blisters/ God give me

            fingernails, give

                        calluses/ i need

to crack

            open/ to

            remove/

Lord/ i am

            not/ i am destringed/

                        i am/ so tired

give us this day/ Lord

            please give this one day

give us no:

wars/ droughts/ plagues/ shootings/ extinctions/ exterminations/ child graves 

give us whole buildings/ Our Lord of uncrushed glass, give us/

            full stomachs/ give/

                        honeybees, Lord/ of fallout/bless

            us the smallest/ God/

                        at least the bees/ at least

            chrysanthemums, God of foot soles/ of grey water, at least/

                       

this day/ Lord God/ just

            one day

no heaviness, no/

            vein-ache, no/

            soul-rubble

Please God, i am tired.

i am tired and

so small.

* * * * *

Nixi Schroeder is a teaching assistant and MA student of English at Truman State University. Her work has been featured by The Fem, Red Dashboard Press, Eyedrum Periodically, Sweet 16's not AR 15's, The Monitor, Everyday Poets, and Windfall Magazine, among other publications. She is also a former poetry reader for the Chariton Review.