Efficacious Prayer Poem by Pamela Spiro Wagner

You know you shouldn't,
and that it is impossible to change
yet when the sirens scream
and fire-trucks go racing in the direction
of your home, you do pray-
and who doesn't?-
that if it isn't your house
it has to be someone's
but better his than yours, though for a moment
you regret the malice in your prayer
and amend it to a false alarm.
Common sense tells you
not to hope too much-
the fire is already where it is. No prayer
will change that, though you know
you should have checked the oven before
you left, doused the ashtrays with water…
No use now in praying-
Is your insurance paid up?
Is everyone out of the house?
You can't pray for any of these either.
The rabbis say: Do not pray
that facts are not facts.
Here there is only the fact
of your gutted house, everything you owned
incinerated. You own nothing now
only cinders, your shoes, the clothing
you wear. Now you can pray,
that much is permitted. Pray you can rebuild
from your embers.