Prayer

Oh God, give me the heartlessness to feel

Nothing when those I love betray or hurt me.

Give me the dullness to accept the real

And faith to have my back when all desert me.

Oh God, give me the blindness that lets me

Saunter unharmed and open-eyed through danger.

Make me feel guilt when I refuse to see

The innocent who hides in every stranger.

Oh God, let me live up to what must die

In me to make a cradle for your love—

And when my soul lets out a baby’s cry

Of hunger, feed it what it’s frightened of

So I can bravely pluck out hatred’s weed

From my heart’s garden, and be caring’s seed.

Copyright 2017 Matthew J Wells