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Prayer
by Justen Ahren

In the beginning, after the platform
after the train's coming in the station

I dreamt of other possibilities
other endings for the young mother

pushing her child toward the edge in the stroller.
I dreamt the train was delayed, took another track.

I dreamt her husband had reached her,
grabbed her arm and pulled them back.

But gray hills, and the small, stagnant water
around the yellow house by the tracks,

where the grass had grown long, and the sky
sled over steel, that steel lid of sky

doesn't allow for other endings.
I dreamt the old believe the young

not knowing what else to do
they believe, and give their dark soil,

its' plenty, which the young reap
armfuls of stalk and flower,

and the seeds which, wept on,
fall to the ground

and sprout green and green and green.


 

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