How Prayer Works: Responses

my brothers and I hardly
prayed together. it was
Ken praying half the time
and Eric snoring half the other
and Hansel sleeping by my mother
and my father using the weight
in the name of Jesus to wake them up.

there was never enough time
in the whole earth to
describe why I was there
but never there.
oftentimes, I knew God wasn’t too
as wasn’t laughter.

that’s not how prayer works.

it was eyes closed,
the shove between knees and floors,
words that fell asleep
and the last amen
that leaves us all wide-eyed.

/liː.ɒnl ɛtʃə/