PRAYER: AIR
by Pamilerin Jacob
breathing mindfully, you are
already finding a refuge in your breath…
– Thich Nhat Hanh
was it not Simone Weil who said
of prayer: an attention absolutely unmixed…
my brother prays in the holy ghost
I too, pray in something holy corporeal
these lungs, tireless as a turbine
churn my thoughts
blobby see, I
too rebuke darkness by panting
23,040 times a day cathedral of awareness
I am the straightening of pleats warm breath
filling the day’s apertures. &
in church
when the pastor says pray, I breathe
deeply count the hairs on my middle finger
as they rise somewhere in the follicles, a
man is heaving, prostrate. an
executioner’s blade midair
about to cure Africa of one less apostate
&—the man—he pays attention
only
to his breath.
Source: From the Rebel Issue (October 2019)
PRAYER: AIR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PAMILERIN JACOB is a Nigerian poet whose poems have appeared in Barren Mag, Agbowo, Poetry Potion, & forthcoming in Rattle. He was the second runner-up for Sevhage Poetry Prize 2019. Author of Memoir of Crushed Petals & chapbooks, Gospels of Depression, & Paper Planes in the Rain (Co-authored); he is a staunch believer in the powers of critical thinking, Khalil Gibran’s poetry & chocolate ice-cream.
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