Swift as a Star Flicker

by Zellie Quin

Prayer, it does ascend

Up from the mind into the air

Through the highest cumulus

In an orange dusky sky

And higher still, like a tailed comet

Out of earth’s realm of spiraling starlights

Into the deep of space,

And past a jeweled galaxy

With stars like sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds

Where a nebulous cloud, a violet mountain

Births, explodes new stars forth

A factory place, a sandcastle of space

And higher still

To the top of the highest Universe

That second sky

Prayer it ascends

Swift as a star flicker

To God’s ear

An ear pressed close to the keyhole

Of that other kingdom’s door

And God’s Spirit reaches forth,

Heaven descends,

To companion the soul

That prays.