Ghazal In the Name of Jesus
When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.
Matthew 6:5
Dear Lord Thank You For This Food In The Name of Jesus.
We Are Your Servants & Live Our Lives In The Name of Jesus.
We Pray That You Will Cover Us In Your Hedge of Protection
As We Walk This Unholy World In The Name of Jesus.
We Pray That We Will Walk & Leap & Praise You Lord
& That Our Food Would Get Here Quickly In The Name of Jesus.
We Pray That You Will Bless Our Bodies Now & That
The Waitress Will Come To Know You In The Name of Jesus.
She Isn’t Filled With The Holy Ghost & Refuses To Bring Us
More Bread But You Made Her In The Name of Jesus.
We Ask That You Will Save The Couple We Met In The Parking
Lot & That They Will Come To Our Church In The Name of Jesus.
Our Attendance Has Been Low Since You-Know-What-Happened
But You Separate The Wheat From The Chaff. In The Name of Jesus
We Ask That You’ll Purify Those Who Use Your Name In Vain
& See Themselves As Holy Without The Name of Jesus.
We Ask That My Daughter Noelle Will Pass Her Driver’s Test
& Stop Hitting The Curve & Get An A In Latin In The Name of Jesus.
We Ask That You Will Fill Her With Knowledge & Good Things
So She Can Become A Doctor & Heal Mightily In The Name of Jesus.
We Also Pray For Her Friend Meg That She Will Flee The Temptation
Of Her Catholic Boyfriend & Speak In Tongues In The Name of Jesus.
She Still Isn’t Filled With The Holy Ghost & She Talks Back At Her Elders
But You Can Still Make Her Modest & Clean-Faced & Holy By The Name of Jesus.
Meg Eden‘s work is published or forthcoming in magazines including Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, Crab Orchard Review, RHINO, and CV2. She teaches creative writing at Anne Arundel Community College. She has five poetry chapbooks, and her novel Post-High School Reality Quest is published with California Coldblood, an imprint of Rare Bird Books. Find her online at www.megedenbooks.com or on Twitter at @ConfusedNarwhal.