Cheerful Prayers


By Pavel Chichikov

Manifest from Nazareth, but not the only One

Bread – perhaps a jest: tax-paying fish,

Dust and spittle on the Savior's thumbs

Deep red wine of wedding feasts

Another world's immense diaphanous form

Ionized, the surface of a star,

Not pantheistic Deity – God of things,

Not Precious Ichor – Blood and Plasma

Square-stemmed Mint, Ease-All, in April,

Crowned not viciously with thorns but flowers,

Rose-flesh in the swelling hip

Not pierced, not piercing to the gentle Carpenter

Collect of the cheerful prayers, the mockingbird:

One ancient tree and he my Lady's angel


(Click here to follow Pavel's ongoing epic poem “The Shoulder of the Sun.” You may visit Pavel's website at http://www.greyowlpress.com.)

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