"Quarantine Slump Prayer"
by Jemma Allen
This is a prayer
from the day when it feels impossible
to stand in another social-distanced queue.
This is a prayer from glasses-fogged
face-mask wearing weariness.
This is a prayer
for missing friends
and loved ones
and longing for hugs
and shared laughter
where you don’t have to worry
about your outbreath
and how far the droplets might travel
if the laughter is a real roar.
This is a prayer
for parents parenting
and homeschooling
and working
and pandemic-ing,
all at once,
improvising
and keeping on going.
This is prayer that longs for
normality –
not the new normal,
but the old careless normal
of standing close to strangers
while your dogs play for a moment or two.
This is a prayer
of having to tolerate uncertainty,
of not being able to know
when it will be different
or what kind of different
the next bit will be.
This is a prayer
of grief upon grief,
all these ordinary losses
and the tragic ones
as a virus runs rampant
and people die.
This is a prayer that asks
for steadiness
in the midst of feeling at sea;
for rest
for the weariness;
for peace
for the anxieties;
for friendship
for the lonely;
for rescue
for the afflicted;
for consolation
for the grieving.
It is a prayer in need of grace.
It is a prayer in need of hope.
It is a prayer in need of the love
that is stronger than death.
Hear our prayer,
O God:
you who are steady,
you who are gracious,
you who are merciful.
Hear our prayer and
meet us in our need.
Amen.
