Snow Prayer
       

Let sky's soft crush come in sleep.
          Let squirrels huddle, clouds shine. Please

a white-fresh fire. Please a kid's feast, her mouth
          stuffed with ice-ash, enlivened. May stoplights

flame across miles. May salt splash, trucks
          grumble. Let gray moths tremble,

dogs wallow and shove. Please smooth a field's
          face. Let shovel, let curse, let birds

hunch over wires and pines. Bring a lustrous
          season of bones. Let the old men

take down their parchment and pens. Let mummy cloth
          grip what is gone. Please a museum

of smoke, a hall of rooftops. Make me and the trees
          forget what we have lost, put on

our silver clothes in stillness, our skin shining,
          our rushing done. Let the ground be the sun.

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Copyright © 2022 Jeffrey Bean All rights reserved
from Colorado Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission