Tauba

By Ray Lacina

You wait for your eyes to roll up in your head

Your wait for the light to fall on you,

To dribble from your fingers like milk

Filling the cup in your lap

You wait for the superhero moment:

You can fly

You can stop a speeding bullet

You can turn all to fire, all to light

You wait for the lightning

And all the while behind you

a gentle hand rests on your shoulder

a gentle voice whispers

in your ear:

“Turn

though you screw it up

every time,

return,

though you never get it right,

though you just can’t shake the feeling

that you’ll never get it right,

turn, just turn

to Me.”

By Ray Lacina, in A Kaleidoscope of Stories: Muslim Voices in Contemporary Poetry (Lote Tree Press, 2020)  www.lotetreepress.com