Prayer

The square of beveled glass
at the top of my front door
has four half-octagons
like tiny serving dishes
that hold the slivers
of sky visible below
the porch lintel
Each refraction blue-
green most days here
in Florida and even though
I know the green is trees
sky blue I always think
stained glass my
stained glass sky and
that is where I pray
each day and ask
for help for all
who suffer for
all I’m surprised
I don’t want a wider
view but just today
I thought oh it is
a church I can’t see
from here the bougainvillea
evening primrose red
tasselflower
bottlebrush my door
itself is covered in gray
wood moths which look
more like wood than wood
itself though the jagged
splinters with swollen
bellies may only be
home dozens stuck
to my door with super
glue that withstands rain
wind a flying thing inside.

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Kelle Groom is the author of four poetry collections, Underwater City, Luckily, Five Kingdoms, and Spill, as well as a memoir, I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl, a B&N Discover selection and NYTBR Editor's Choice, and How to Live: A Memoir in Essays. An NEA Fellow and recipient of two Florida Book Awards in poetry, Groom’s work appears in AGNI, American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, The New Yorker, New York Times, Ploughshares, and Poetry.