Praying for other people, but I forgot to pray for myself more.
Loving other people, but I forgot to love myself more.
Listening to other people, but no one dares to listen to me too.
Saving other people, but no one dares to save me too.

I Pray Tonight
by Michael R. Burch

I pray tonight
the starry light
might
surround you.

I pray
each day
that, come what may,
no dark thing confound you.

I pray ere tomorrow
an end to your sorrow.
May angels’ white chorales
sing, and astound you.

Composer Mark Buller used the lyrics of “I Pray Tonight” in his musical composition “Erasure,” a song cycle for baritone, clarinet and piano on the theme of gun violence. “I Pray Tonight” was later performed as “Elegy” at the Hurricane Harvey Relief Concert by the Apollo Chamber Players in partnership with Musiqa Houston and Jazz Forever @ the MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston), on September 8, 2017. All proceeds went towards the Harvey Relief Funds. Keywords/Tags: Pray, prayer, angel, angels, divine, protection, safety, starry, light, mercy, grace, comfort, shield, buckler, safeguard, charm, talisman, white magic

I don’t want to pray about you.
Not because God and I are taking a break,
Not because I’m busy,
Not because I can’t close my eyes without blinking away tears.

But because I’m scared.
I admit it,
I’m scared.

I’m scared that God will take you from me,
I’m scared that he’ll smite me for loving you.

I’m scared that God will cast me out of your garden,
I’m scared that the snakes and I are tangled into each other.
(We’re unrecognizable. Who knows where slither starts and fingertips end.)

I’m terrified that God will tell me that you and I aren’t meant to be,
That we are abominations.
That this wasn’t a match made in heaven.

That we are slowly falling,
In love,
Back to earth,
With wings scorched black—

Please.
Don’t ask me to pray,
Or you just might catch me with my eyes wide open whispering sweet nothings to a God I’m fearful of.

I wasted all my money on you.
Not you as a person , but what you did to me.
Therapy, Drugs, Alcohol all down the drain.
No amount of money will ever reverse the pain
My feelings came like a storm as I opened the door
All my missing money now makes me feel poor
I wish and I pray to god up above
To fill my broken heart back up with love

The oversized doors made from panels of oak
From somewhere behind open heavy and slow,
for another akin
The creak of the wood as they let themselves in

Disturbing the hallowed and candlelit quiet
Turning the heads of the practicing pious
We are shook from a dream
By the rushing of wind through this place of esteem