Prayer From A Mouse

Dimensionless One, can you hear me? 

Me with the moon ears, caught 

in ice branches? 

 

Beneath the sky's long house, 

beneath the old snake tree, 

I pray to see even a fragment 

of you-- 

whiskers ticking 

 

a deserted street, 

a staircase leading 

to the balcony 

of your collarbone. 

 

Beloved King of Stars, I cannot 

contain my animal movements. 

 

For you I stay like a mountain. 

For you I stay like a straight pin. 

 

But in the end, the body leaves us 

its empty building. 

 

Midnight petulant 

as a root cellar. Wasps crawling 

in sleeves. I sleep 

 

with my tail over 

my face, enflamed. 

 

Oh Great Cataloguer 

of Snow Leaves, I pray 

that you may appear 

and carry every piece 

of my fur in your hands.

 

--Sarah Messer