prayer (xv)

prayer (xv)

Jonathan Chan

‘It is an air you enter, not an act you make.
It is the will’s frustration, and is the will’s fruition.’
— Christian Wiman, ‘The Parable of Perfect Silence’

counted the hoof prints, dust settling on fronds.
sat and watched the advance of early spring rain.
heard it from within, ‘forgive us our depths’.
it’s the light that wipes you out, cleans you up,
helps you remember every glimmering.
days shimmer on the flutter of feathers.
invisible hands press against the shoulders.
the mind tires of reaching back to the past
for rescue, for levity, for regret.
drinking the black milk of daybreak, we drink
it in spoonfuls, goblets for an absent king.
silence has felt like paper cuts on the
joints of my fingers. almost like trampling
thistle. turned back to it. prayed for a ceasefire.

* The image ‘black milk of daybreak’ comes from John Felstiner’s
translation of Paul Celan’s poem ‘Death Fugue’.

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Jonathan Chan
Poet & Writer

Jonathan lives in Singapore and is the author of the poetry collection Going Home (2022, Landmark Books).

Photography by Feyza Yıldırım