tarek chemaly
three books
2009
\_Front page
\_Strata
read
\_getting the news
  from poems
\_Archewallogy
\_Jnune 7 – 2009
\_earlier writings
(2002/2003)
(| EN | FR |)
o-----////()/---[getting the news from poems]------(| Tarek Chemaly · 2009 |)------¬ contents
Catcher in the Rhyme 2005

Let us pray for rain

Let us pray for rain,
Let us pray for the harvest,
Let us pray for excess toilet paper in times of need,
Let us pray for mucus secretions,
Oh come, let us pray.

Let us pray for sneezing,
Let us pray for tissue paper to wipe it out,
Let us pray, just for the sake of praying,
Pray for being obsessive-compulsive,
Pray for the rituals of praying in themselves,
Pray for the morphine of their repetition.

Let us pray,
For the fluidity of sin,
For the inbuilt fear,
For the induced boundaries,
For the discipline,
For working mothers and househusbands,
For new improved formulas,
For marketing strategies,
For lit candles so that they won’t burn out,
For incense,
For nonsense.

Let us pray for photocopy machines,
For cloned genes,
And car engines,
Let us pray for fuel reserves,
For approved international standards,
For discarded household appliances,
For greenhouse gases,
For censorship,
For osmosis,
For diffusion.

Let us pray for rain,
Let us pray for the harvest,
Let us pray for hygienic pads in times of need,
Let us pray for menstrual cycles,
Oh come, let us pray.
106

Tarek Chemaly, “Let us pray for rain”, getting the news from poems (2009), p. 106.

Tarek Chemaly’s three books of 2009, published on 111101 with the author’s permission. getting the news from poems: layout Mike Awad. Archewallogy: design Farah Samman, cover Ashekman. Jnune 7 – 2009: with Rami El Khoury, Upstairs Publishing; photographs as credited on each page.