CHANGE THE POEM

  by Jim Bodeen

You don’t know what it will be
until you do. Start everyday.
Las palabras de la oración varían
pero la repuesta nunca cambia.
That’s what I said in my tough poem
on prayer, and it makes me dizzy
reading in Spanish. I ask questions
in daily devotions. My friends
leave the country after counting votes.
Harry wears a black shirt 
carrying the words of Romero.
The prayer about leaving, reads
for paths untrod and dangers unknown.
Caminos desconocidos. We do not know
what we are doing. The journalist says
it’s dangerous here. As many murders
on the streets as KIA’s during the Guerra civil.
Start everyday, the Carmelite sister says.
It is necessary. Oh, God of Razor-Wire,
help us see beyond your lethal beauty.
My long-sleeved shirt that breathes,
that contains more pockets than I will ever find,
was made in Viet Nam. It is so cool.
As the day warms I can roll my sleeves
above the elbow where I will discover
a button that attaches to a hidden loop 
that will also appear. This is discernment
in troubled times. We are walking 
to heaven, like the sister says.