by Katherine West
Ice breaks the trees shoots
children in the face with twenty-two's
hunters bring down the moose
Blizzard blinds the blind preacher
on the way to church rage leaks
into the pews shoots two teenage
girls--they die on their knees praying
for teenage brothers in Iraq who pray
only to come back to pines praying
in the quiet snow three days
before Christmas their prayer a deep meditation
on the silence of sap rooted in waiting
we pray for the return of sun, life
as it once was and will be again, life
green with the silence of peace, life
Katherine West is a poet presently living in northern Colorado and teaching Creative Writing at the local community college, museum, and Naropa University, which is in nearby Boulder, Colorado.