Wonder

Author Corie Feiner

Wonder

Corie Feiner

There would be too many amens to hold daily 
if I dared to utter them. The gasp of the crimson sky
above the scrape of my green garbage can, 

the way the tall brown grass has become heavy 
with ice and bends its head to the earth saying 
its own winter prayer, the slight open mouths 
of my sleeping children sighing with dreams 
of one day, of now.

There would be too many amens to hold
in my small hands if I let them all in, the wonder
I felt when I would wander as a young girl
to find something alive in the city—

the churchyard with the worn tombstones 
and washed-out names, that fig tree buried 
in the front yard of a South Bronx home, 

the cold smash of waves across the street
from the housing projects saying, 
We are at the edge of the world,

the coo of chickens in the back yard
of the mosque so far from any train stop 
it was no longer part of anywhere but itself.

Aren’t we all islands who touch each other
deep beneath the waves? Aren’t we all trying 
to find a way to pray with each other into 

cell phones or cigarettes, over water coolers, 
or with our hands clasped tightly 
around holy books as we grapple with stories 

of prophets who also fell to sand and said, 
Wonder, wonder, can I hold it all?

---

Poems & Paraboles publishes work that illuminates, awakens, or opens a small window toward wonder. Some pieces are quiet. Some are bold. Some carry a moral thread, while others wander into the mysterious and ethereal.

Poets and storytellers are invited to submit their work. Selected pieces will be posted and featured throughout the year. See Submission Guidelines!

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