Lenten Prayer 4

It is the Castoffs Most Beautiful

My God

What is in the curb’s crook

but a peace lily as yellow as duck

sprouting beside buckled can & cigarette butt

left behind careless almost

but for strong striations in leaves

this astonishing color

And too there are discarded daffodils

by abandoned church parking lot

grape hyacinth spires

rising over crackling dead leaves

cast off by winter

Or those poppies

there on crumbling hill

among candy-bar & condom wrappers

Red as blood of saints

They lift

empty cups to the sky

They expect

to be filled