a slow haze rolls over any answers to prayers the stars sent —
their light too long ago to reach
still, the cathedral’s candle votives on iron shelves glow at the slip into sleep
altar roses brighten, pause
the petals’ fall to ash
grass reaches out of cracks in the cemetery wall
and so, dawn breaks
an Uber driver follows pink dice
and a rosary on the mirror into her first call
a man brings a bouquet of yellow roses to an ICU
for a woman who knows no one
daffodils in a vacant lot gather sun and pass it on
an old lady can walk just to her courtyard,
where sparrows bring songs from the sky
rumours of a relic behind the church mosaic wall, a man stands just there,
looks into St. Jude’s glass eyes
by a corner newsstand, at a little sidewalk shrine,
someone lights a candle now and again
the whole city crosses by
