"About Suffering" by Nin Andrews from DMQ REVIEW

Today's poem is by Nin Andrews

About Suffering

I heard on the radio this morning that patients who are prayed for suffer less than those who receive no prayers. Studies have been performed with extreme care. The prayerless patients were kept in isolated hospital wings—without windows, visitors, phone messages, letters, flowers, silk pajamas or any other form of prayer listed in the latest edition of A Field Guide to Prayers.

Even fragrances are considered a form of prayer, especially the scent of flowers or baking bread, or of lemons and oranges, which remind one of the many flavors of the divine. The walls of the hospital rooms for the prayerless are scoured with Clorox which carries the pale blue astringent scent of amnesia and loss.

Agnosticism smells of bergamot, dust and wheat, one note lighter than cedar or sandalwood, said to be the fragrance of belief, and to waft eternally from holy relics.

Even the sheets and pillowcases of the prayerless were changed daily, for the smell of one's own sweat and dreams can inspire memories and images of longing.

Longing is the essential ingredient of every prayer.

Copyright © 2025 Nin Andrews All rights reserved
from DMQ Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission

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