Prayer

Some days

Although we cannot pray

A prayer utters itself

So, a woman

Will lift her head

From the sieve of her hands

And stare at the minims sung by a tree

A sudden gift

Some nights

Although we are faithless

The truth enters our hearts

That small familiar pain

Then a man will stand stock-still

Hearing his youth

In a distant Latin chanting

Of a train

Pray for us now

Pray for us now

Grade one scales

Console the lodger

Looking out across

A Midlands town

Then dusk

And someone calls a child's name

As though they named their loss

Darkness outside

Inside

The radio's prayer

Rockall

Malin

Dogger

Finisterre