Dear Lord

Today’s quest – to write a poem in which the speaker expresses the desire to be someone or something else and explains why. Two possible models for are: Natasha Rao’s “In my next life let me be a tomato,” and Randall Jarrell’s “The Woman at the Washington Zoo.”

I really liked the latter one, you may spot some borrowed styling in today’s piece.

Apart from when I was a junior school kid, when I want to be called Steve, have smart jeans and be cool, I think I’m much like a lot of people I know in that they’ve only ever wanted to be one thing.

….

Dear Lord,
Please give me, the strength to stare,
In the other direction,
And simply not care,
About the human who squats on the cold concrete floor,
Outside on the pavement,
Near the department store door,
That I open each week as I pop in to shop,
Never dropping my eyeline,
Never thinking to stop,
Or to offer to help in his everday plight,
To find a bed for, to sleep in that night.

And dear Lord,
If you do this,
Can I also request?
That you blind me with passion,
And let me do my best,
To protect my country by sending them back,
Not because I am racist,
But because I’m not black,
Or brown, or physically broken or mentally scarred,
From facing starvation or another man’s war,
Or the brutalisation of the sex industry,
Let it not be my problem,
Let it not bother me.

O, sweet Lord,
Here is my final demand,
If you grant this, you’ll make me
The happiest man.
Please numb all my senses,
And cut out my heart,
Fill my brain with slurry,
Let it never more start,
And free me forever from this burning yoke,
And the chains that bind me,
To the prison of woke,
Yes Lord, please release me,
For I want to be free,
From all that I am,
And all that is me.

….