A New Prayer for the New Year

God gives and God takes

i’ve prayed all my life for God to give

bicycles, beauty, brains-

Can’t ignore

some modest gains

a bicycle waiting for me after school

prayer answered but 

never enough

don’t want stuff-

adoration, love

from those I love.

We pray “please give”-

this year, soul gears in reverse-

please take

O great Receiver,

Weighed down with waste

agonizing anger

jealousies that gyp me out of joy

fear,handmaiden of guilt

grinding  the heart into ground’s dust

in your Omnipotence, accept as gift 

all ruin and refuse of shattered hearts

for you but a trifle, for me, mud-laden  mortal, crushing,

 I totter in drunken stupor  squashing sadness into oblivion

Purify the pollution of my soul

In Your Compassion cast  it into the vastness of the universe,

claim the  compost of my torment 

recycle it as a medley of  joyful melody 

You are the Great Taker

I surrender all toYou

Pain, fear, guilt, hopeless view of tomorrow

let me be without 

the baggage of so much rubbish

I pray I not litter my life in the New Year 

Accept my refuse with ‘rachamim,”

May it be Your will.

Amen