Prayer for the Excommunicated by Lauren Scharhag

somewhere outside Osceola 

prairie lightning coronas grain silos 

quicksilver violet 

air so humid raindrops 

vaporize as soon as they touch 

febrile ground igniting 

silt and cornrow  

shaggy hillocks of buffalo 

stand as one with big bluestem

diners selling bison burgers 

by the quarter pound 

livestock trucks thundering past 

flash of horn 

tails dangling listless out the slats 

the damp give of fields beneath hooves

a distant memory 

rising moon a blood stain 

fading as it climbs to rust 

to burnished copper

we count wayside shrines

with white crosses and plastic flowers

the excommunicated gathering

in the false light of all-night 

gas stations where we purchase

lottery ticket devotionals and partake

of roller grill hot dogs and machine

dispensed coffee like every day is 

the last supper and where every 

bathroom mirror reveals a ghost 

looking back.

Lauren Scharhag is the author of fourteen books, including Requiem for a Robot Dog (Cajun Mutt Press) and Languages, First and Last (Cyberwit Press). Her work has appeared in over 100 literary venues around the world. Recent honors include the Seamus Burns Creative Writing Prize, two Best of the Net nominations, and acceptance into the 2021 Antarctic Poetry Exhibition. She lives in Kansas City, MO. To learn more about her work, visit: www.laurenscharhag.blogspot.com