SAID

lord pray pray loudly against the noise of the human hand which seeks to drown you out and appear on quiet soles so that we might understand your footsteps exert yourself in order to recognize our prayers even when they appear in a different garment because no prayer ever looses itself from the source of the one praying • lord take up the speech by which i pray to you grant me the gestures which have grown within me in your absence so that i might remain true to my uneducable nature and take your weakness upon me • lord you should always wander and never let yourself settle down because there are no longer any dwelling places only footsteps be loud and penetrating sympathize with me and my stirrings lead me all the way to your bread so that my word might wake • lord stay by me even if i nourish myself from ashes and salt be still and listen to that name which i lend to you because i want to distinguish you from the idols grant me patience to endure those who are vain with their empty words and the converts who are zealous to confirm their opposite and grant that my waiting be full of revolt • lord when you arrive we will be light bread and water the table is set and the door opened come and take your place among us free me of the belief that you are only faithful from a distance and speak with me in the unharried language of animals who from far off lie in wait for us with their unadulterated hunger