A Prayer for the Living

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What the dead might ask of us: a prayer for the living

“No more hurting people. Peace.” ~ Martin Richard, 8, killed at the Boston Marathon bombings

The blast sends shock waves
Waves of fear, of anger, of confusion
Waves of caring, of love, of tenderness
Images of the explosions and of the bleeding cut to the heart
Who could do such a thing?

The day after the bombings, CNN runs ads for home security systems
“Don’t wait for someone to rob you, call now to make your house safe.”
 Why waste the opportunity to make money?
Let’s peddle the illusion that security can be bought
A “security expert” talks about how Al Qaeda used the same kind of bombs
The implication is clear: “terrorists are Muslim.”

A young Saudi man, a victim of the bombing
Is “tackled” while running from the blast
“He looked suspicious”
Is “guarded” at his bedside in the hospital
His apartment is searched in a “startling show of force”
His roommate questioned for five hours

“Exhausted runners… kept running to the nearest hospital to give blood.
If you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil—that’s it.
Selflessly. Compassionately. Unafraid,” says Obama.

True that.  Except…  Holding our breath

As afraid of the aftershocks as we are of the initial blast
Wondering what retribution might come
What horrors this bombing might justify

Instead, can we breathe?

What might Martin Richard ask of us?
Pray for Boston, for Newtown, for Yemen, for Pakistan
Pray with our feet for healing

Maybe the dead are longing
For the living to use our hands
To stop the next blast now
To give our blood for love
To put our bodies on the line
To end this cycle

To have faith there is a finish line in the marathon for peace

Poem is by Lucy Duncan, American Friends Service Committee