prayer for parched times

7/11/17

Lord,

We are considering the lilies as best we can. 

But in this summer season, sweat on skin and

Concrete like a griddle underfoot --

Could you perhaps send

An image more readily apprehended?

Could you perhaps tell

How you care for scorpions, 

For battle-readied beetles with their armor?

Or tell us how how you hugged a cactus once.

Let spines stick through your skin and sting you something fierce,

Wiped dust from fading green, and tender cracked it open

Cracked it all the way open.

Your hands prickled with blood, pierced with a thousand barbs, 

You cracked it open and the cell sap (plop) 

Sprang up a well. Cell fluids streaking down your hands, 

Drip-dropping to the earth. 

Tell us how cactus flesh, designed for desperate times,

Was made to store up rain. 

How in the drylands, cactus flesh is crushed

To bring forth water.