Just Another Morning Prayer

Morning Prayer

“Nothing needs to be this lavish.”

– Mark Doty, from “Couture.” 

Nothing needs to be

this gorgeous, either, this particular

shade of a trade-ripped Prussian blue

Pacific, this chalk-dust-green of sheep

pasture gone to seed, grass so high,

the sheep disappear, except

for the springing lambs.  Nothing

needs to be this breezy, a cooling

wind sweeping beneath a belt

of heat, whipped off the sea, froth

of air, nothing needs to be this

steady, this certain, as ocean itself,

pounding the cliffs

into submission, soothing

the intense, black razors of

lava into egg-cups and basins

and begging bowls.  Nothing needs

to be at all, and still, God grant me more

of this, already, endless and

unnecessary.