invocationing

I pray
for you

for my niece
and her brother
and
her parents

for the healing of my brother
after
surgery

for continued success
in sibling and grand-sibling
lives

I pray for peace

but more immediately for
binding wounds in
Gaza
and Ukraine
in
Myanmar
Tibet

and for this nation that it heal
in all the needed and
surprising ways
not
by bringing home the military to
enforce
unconstitutionally
and
we remember founding documents
in
establishing
policy and practice

affirmation
action
toward the three things guaranteed
in a declaration
leading to a war of sacrifice
to make
and keep us as that great experiment
in democracy

you know
I think you know

so
I also pray for strangers
names I know
and don’t
groups

and for those loving impositions
values
in treating fair
respecting lives
all
colors of the outside
plus
you know
the sameness on the inside

pray
for differences
and similarities
as
both are needed for a person
family
community
nation and we may look out
to take in
the versatility of the cosmos
with
what goes the same
and all uniquenesses discovered

for
one
and for the Earth
and far beyond
and really close inside
amen

c l couch


photo by Ben Gillam on Unsplash