You have given me to pray

and it’s like a slow tornado.

I’m sucked up in circles

and at the top am in the sun

and I say,

“Take me! Take me!”

But no, now I know

it’s not a prayer.

It’s a poem and me

fleeing again. I see

the people I love

and so slide down to them

through the last of the poem,

that old fire escape we had at school.