back to poetry

For the wind no one expected 

For the boy who does not know the answer 

For the graceful handle I found in a field 

attached to nothing 

pray it is universally applicable 

For our tracks which disappear 

the moment we leave them 

For the face peering through the cafe window 

as we sip our soup 

For cheerful American classrooms sparkling 

with crisp colored alphabets 

happy cat posters 

the cage of the guinea pig 

the dog with division flying out of his tail 

and the classrooms of our cousins 

on the other side of the earth 

how solemn they are 

how gray or green or plain 

how there is nothing dangling 

nothing striped or polka-dotted or cheery 

no self-portraits or visions of cupids 

and in these rooms the students raise their hands 

and learn the stories of the world 

For library books in alphabetical order 

and family businesses that failed 

and the house with the boarded windows 

and the gap in the middle of a sentence 

and the envelope we keep mailing ourselves 

For every hopeful morning given and given 

and every future rough edge 

and every afternoon 

turning over in its sleep 

"Prayer in My Boot" by Naomi Shihab Nye, from 19 Varieties of Gazelle. © Greenwillow Books, 2005.