Prayer Flags

I laid my hand
Upon
A square of colored cotton cloth,
Infused,
I hoped,
The whole of it
With
A dream
At once powerful and pure.

I embellished the perimeter
With
A continuous stream
Of
Written symbols
Designed both
To encompass
And
To direct
The dream.

My small square
Of colored cotton cloth,
And others
Of the same size,
Were strung
Together
And lifted up
To hang
So that the eye
Is drawn
Upward
To where the colors
Are set apart
Against the sky.

The heart must needs
Follow
The eye,
For it is
There,
Linked together
And reaching upward
Toward the heavens,
They
Receive the sun,
Accept the rain,
Stiffen with frost.

Even now,
As the fabric fades,
As the edges fray,
And as the inked supplications smear,
It is there that
God’s breath
Falls upon them,
Moves them,
Stirring the corners,
Billowing the whole,
And turning the impermanence
Of these individual
Testaments of faith,
Into one prayer
With many
Multicolored
Parts.