Trash to Burn
for Ned L. Siegel

unanswered mail
unanswered prayers
heaped up around the world
to burn

how significant
is what I am on fire about

this compared with
what is sunlit
with what the sun lights

what is significant this second,
marked urgent

what is God attending to

his attention elsewhere
not upon my prayers
my bills to pay

several overdue, one due today

I suppose there are
more urgent matters

people dying or being born
people injured or being killed

anywhere where
there is sever pain
I suppose guardian angels
must gather round

must I too seek the suffering out
to matter, to be where
what matters is occurring

how far removed I often feel
with my wants and needs
with my poetry

where is what matters happening
what is valued enough
to be paid for

how small my business is
how insignificant it seems
in the scheme of things


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2008
2:52 p.m. 21.02.08