Poem-A-Week
prayer (xiv)
by Jonathan Chan
‘That space within you is the reign of God.’
C. S. Song
afflicted by an everlasting
kindness, capacious, inner space
circling outward, you recall the
fantasy of being
you, very young in
New York, prayer scattering
over chapped lips, over
corner pharmacies and rattling
cars, the rumble of pipes and
clattering of
heat.
prayer like jangling keys before
the solemnity of faceless
brownstone. there is a
lightness
to this air. it dries out
skin, wind-whipping the
cheeks and ears, soles skidding
over frosted roads, and each
point of light
darting
through rooftops. this city
is a wilderness, winter air still
around an interceding body,
through present trussed to future
triangle, asking for
fire that causes the water to boil,
fire that kindles brushwood,
fire that laps the worry of
formless grey days.
Jonathan Chan is a writer, editor, and graduate student at Yale University. Born in New York to a Malaysian father and South Korean mother, he was raised in Singapore and educated in Cambridge, England. He is interested in questions of faith, identity, and creative expression. He has recently been moved by the writing of Yeow Kai Chai, John Green, and Roger Robinson. More of his writing can be found at jonbcy.wordpress.com