1.

We all shake when we pray.
Somewhere. Your miracle
drifted in different beakers,
was locked in separate labs
and opened and closed
in the pupils of strange eyes.

It was called consumption
then and you kept the name.
And when the time came
you didn’t just beg
to die. You wanted more.
That human touch.
Too much chloroform
and your pain turned
to dust.

2.

One of them never
shook again. Married
a local woman
out of the sect.
I always wondered
how he prayed
after that.
If he ever found
a cure for mercy.