Incendiary
So many small lights
banishing
night.
Beeswax, white
Small, lit column by row
In round burnished copper
holders
melts into
puddles of pleading.
Sweetened waxy
Aroma pervades
the space,
a fragrance unto God
marking place as holy
with
incendiary prayer.
Persistent Night
Night stretches out,
past its appointed time.
Monstrous gray fog pitches
its tent over my patch of sky.
Air thick with dew carries
promise of rain, without fulfilling.
Light may be breaking through
somewhere, but not where I can see.
I cry out against day's dry dark,
"Lord, where are you?"
How long will dark and fog
persist without light or rain?
Lightning splits the darkness.
Hard, cleansing rain, at last. Selah.
Joan Leotta is a performer and writer whose motto is "Encouraging words through pen and performance." She seeks to fulfill this with folklore and one-woman performance, with poetry, essay, articles, and books for adults and children. Her first poetry volume, Languid Lusciousness with Lemon, came out in 2017 from Finishing Line Press. Reach out to her on Facebook to sign up for her newsletter of encouragement for writers. https://www.facebook.com/Joan-Leotta-Author-and-Story-Performer-188479350973/