by Debbie Felio

Have mercy on me a sinner,
     by heart I know this prayer 
      I come half-hearted and distracted
       wondering again if you are there

suffer the children
        those separated at the borders
         those dream filled sons and daughters 
          where is protection in your orders?
 
  Be still and know
          that you are God but who
            am I or any of us
            are we even seen by you?

   Love one another as I have loved
             all of this?  and them? 
              abundantly what remains
                in me is carried unforgiven
   
  Behold I am with you always 
             and what about today?
             in this time of cruelty and grief
              again I bow and pray

  
            Lord, help my unbelief.

Debbie Felio is a late in life witness poet exploring and writing on the mundane, the miraculous and the under-represented sides of historic and current issues. She continues her lifelong pursuit of finding God in the smallest places in life, and admitting the challenges of faith when the world is in chaos. Her work is published online and in print, including anthologies Hay(na)ku 15 ( Eileen Tabios, editor); Minnie’s Diary, A Southern Literary Review October (2018) ;and Gabriel’s Horn:Startled by Joy and Startled by Nature (2020), Refuse to Stay Silent (2020) a collection by Colorado artists commemorating the centennial of the 19th amendment, and I-70 Review Anthology, 2022. Her untitled cherita sequence was a published finalist in the MacQueens’s Quarterly March 2021 ekphrastic challenge.