Claudia Kessel
Parking Lot Prayer
Lord, purify the foulness of our hearts
We offer you our garbage thoughts and trash
Throats of filth, soiled souls, our bitter parts
Fat bodies and clogged minds, our teeth that gnash
Here, take our little hatreds, jealousies
That in us burrow, chitter, rodent-like
Grey weariness, the bleakness of fatigue
Smog of our spirit, wrath and rage's strike
You say that we are in your image made
Yet our words flow like muck in sludge-filled streams
We yearn for your alchemy, our gold mislaid
For your chanted voice to pierce us in our dreams
Crack us open, spill our beauty, call us by name
Cradle us in your embrace, heal our pain
Bio
Claudia Kessel works as a grant writer in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her poetry has been published in Richmond Magazine as a finalist in the 2021 Shann Palmer Poetry Contest, awarded by James River Writers, in the 2024 Poetry Society of Virginia anthology, and in online and print literary journals Ekstasis, Arkana, Literary Mama, Uppagus, and Lullwater Review.