2019 Third-Place Winner Joanne Esser

PRAYER TO BECOME SOIL

by Joanne Esser

Even after the storm that rips leaves

From the trees, even as branches crack

And fall, through the empty limbs

The sky remains. Under it, I stand

Empty-handed. I pray: Make me

Into something solid that will last.

Crumble me into soil beneath that sky,

Dark, thick, moist. Composed of

What has fallen apart. Humble

Enough to embrace the smallest seed.

Help me be modest, quiet, patient

So new roots might push in.

No longer do I want to be the plant,

The flower or fruit. Now is my time

Of stillness, to be the black ground

From which brighter things emerge.

As my blossoming ends, may I become

That which holds what is about to begin.

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Joanne Esser writes poetry and nonfiction in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has also been a teacher of young children for over thirty years. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University and published a chapbook of poems, I Have Always Wanted Lightning, with Finishing Line Press in 2012. Her full-length collection of poetry, Humming At The Dinner Table” will be published in October 2019 by Finishing Line Press. Other recent work appears in Common Ground Review, Nostos, Welter, Gyroscope Review, Miramar and Passager, among other journals.