"say a prayer backwards" - poetry

[be_themoon]

you guys I am in love with college and erasures and poetry and language and such things. I did an erasure and now have to wait for the original author's permission to post it. and I'm finally posting a poem I wrote about a month ago and wasn't sure about posting.

say a prayer backwards

words are important
“yes”
“no”
“I don’t know”
and you know that it’s all just
syntax
context
how you can say the same thing a hundred
different
ways
and mean the same thing every time

you can mean to slip
not fall
not mean to fall
and slip
cut yourself jagged on words you didn’t even know you had
like saying a prayer
backwards

you can become your own antithesis
you can sing your own breakaway song
you can build your own mercy from the ground
into the sky

you can look away and you
can find the strength to break
and build again
you can fall in love and you can find
magic and you can
touch the stars
and most people don’t
but you need to remember

and look
listen
you just have to put it into context
how the earth spins contrary
to the motion of the sun
widdershins
counterclockwise
singing mercy to the skies
singing “just let go”

you’ve created your own gravity
built your own lies
tied yourself down with words that don’t mean a thing
not without the right –
but you don’t know anymore
you’ve forgotten the rhythm
you’re praying backwards and

you can still sing mercy from the ground to the sky

look
listen
remember
even these words need the right