Prayer Like a Picture

Still today I stand eager at the door
to give a gift,
standing motionless in wait—
body swollen with bloom, eyes still as stone.

Drifting only in verdant hope.
For a moment's time I stretch out both hands,
silently counting the hours
to drift away in a contrary current;
rudderless in mid-river
I sit in the restless wind.

From one I have prayed for
I have bound deception to this
breast where plaster crumbles, still seeking
the balm of intimacy.

Yet that prayed-for one never came...
O God!
Yet that prayed-for time never came.