Childhood Prayer
By Jesi Bender
As I lay me down to sleep
Perfumed
With a voice that burns off like smoke
In the dark, under grey-blue sheets
I look at the outline,
How your face cuts the air
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
All I see is the pink, fleshy insides of your eyes
And the memories projecting from therein
The corners from where every tear was torn
Veins pressed against the white, like hollow/hallowed reeds
Sick and tired from this modern discontent
And if I should die before I wake
Retract into youth
As I fall asleep
Originality/A purity escaping, gasps and grasps
Sometimes I feel carved out
Like a silhouette, skin over air
I pray the Lord my soul to take
An artist from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Jesi Bender graduated with a B.A. in English and Fine Arts from Cornell University in 2007. Her first book, entitled Oppressed by the Notion of Beauty, will be released by December 2009.
Contact: Jesi Bender * Email: jesibender@gmail.com.
Tamryn Spruill
in American poets, Arts & Letters, Brooklyn, Jesi Bender, National Poetry Month, Williamsburg
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Reader Comments (1)
Quite a scene in this poem. Great description- a careful read and you can picture it. The copious description of the person opposite the speaker ("with a voice that burns off like smoke") and esp. his/her eyes gives the poem such tension. The tension is thickened by the need for relief on the part of the speaker and it's not clear at all that the methods of getting relief (retracting into youth or prayer) will be efficacious. Remedies don't remedy and "A purity" is tragically lost ("escaping, gasps and grasps"). It's all summed up here: "Sometimes I feel carved out/Like a silhouette, skin over air"...
Love those lines and lines like "..outline/how your face cuts the air"...