Ripe Tomatoes
for Erica & Angela

help us oh God to reach
not just for low pleasures
for what’s on the lowest shelf

not just for what is near at hand
not only for what we can reach
with our hands
no further than arm’s length

help us more and more oh, God
to reach for what can only be reached
with mind -- help us to be passionate
about such fruit as these

for those fruit too high to reach
to pick or to knock down with stick
help us with our minds, to reach the sky

enable us to cause rain to tumble down
or with prayers, to cause hoarfrost to rain down,
food from heaven when we’re hungry
instead of eating garbage off the ground

instead of littering, dropping debris
as well as who, too soon,
become society’s unwanted citizens


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
9:57 p.m. 2/11/07