A Prayer for Peace

What we need now is bread,
soft dough to dig
fingers in, to knuckle and
pinch, pummel and punch
down. Like the grass
when crushed under foot
springing back,
it will not cry out or
die like daughters
and sons.
If we must raise our
fists, let us
plunge them in the body
of yeast and wheat.
Bread is not flesh.
Our hands will come
clean if we rise like
acre upon acre of shining
grain. Let us be sun-
ripe and light
like the crusty
loaves. Let us break
bread.

\

Terry Song
55 years old


Terry Song lives in Columbia, Missouri and teaches creative writing, literature, and women's studies at Stephens College. She is author of This Is My Body (West End Press).