A Prayer for the Hopeless
by Micaela Gardner

He twists his black tie into a noose

Dreaming, in color,

Of the life he should have had.

 

Like his long, scary shadow stretched impossibly far

It loses itself in the smothering darkness.

The pain follows him everywhere

Always there, never forgetting him

Or the wasted life he has led.  Even in

His happiest hours, it chooses to stay.

 

Every night, when he retires and buries

His head into the grave

Of his hands

He prays (begs) to the ceiling

To the empty sky

Violently for salvation.

 

He gets no reply.

And watches his life

Disappear like it never existed.

Yet opens his eyes

In a birth-like type

Of revelation,

Revealing a world of complete and

Utter

Nothing.

 

Nothing fills the streets,

A black and white film,

Without sound or real direction.

With dead plot lines that attempt to surface

And get ripped down under again.

Forever intertwining streets,

That twist and tangle to nowhere. 

All of which lead him back to the start:

 

 

A knot in his tie.

 

MICAELA GARDNER is an eighty-year-old woman trapped in the body of a twenty year old. She enjoys card games, knitting, crossword puzzles, and cats.

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