Prayer - Marie Howe

 Every day I want to speak with you. And every day something more important
calls for my attention---the drugstore, beauty products, the luggage

I need to buy for the trip.
Even now I can hardly sit here

among the falling piles of paper and clothing, the garbage trucks outside
already screeching and banging.

The mystics say you are as close as my own breath.
Why do I flee from you?

Help me. Even as I write these words I am planning
to rise from the chair as soon as I finish this sentence.