Tere Sievers: "These Things A Prayer"

As a child, I had a patron saint,

St. Theresa of Lisieux, the Little Flower.

the saint of small things:

a washed dish, raked leaves,

clothes hung on the line,

these things a prayer.

Sometimes I remember

that my life is like all others,

the past gone, the present here,

the future, what future?

Sometimes I remember

to look for the present

under the pepper tree.

There I find a green prayer

in the rustle of leaves,

a brown one, as silent bugs

burrow in dry earth,

or white, like the cat,

stretched warm in the sun,

still, on the stone wall.

"These Things A Prayer" by Tere Sievers. Published here by poet submission. © Tere Sievers.

Art credit: St. Theresa of Lisieux as a child by unknown photographer (originally black and white).