Annamaria Formichella

Prayer for the Broken

This is for the rusty outlet in a
room no one uses, for the cracked
window without a small face peering
through, wishing for a snow day.

Blessings on the damaged plant I
left outside the night of the first
hard frost, on both its hopeful green
shoots and its withered brown leaves.

Good fortune to the worn yellow
wallpaper, carefully drawn designs
curling away from the plaster like
an unraveling bandage.

Tidings of great joy to my lined
face and troubled mouth. There is
beauty in decay, if we only learn to
shift our gaze and love the scars.

This song is for you, transience
and imperfection, marking our
surfaces with the passage of time
to remind us we are real.

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Annamaria Formichella is a native New Englander. She currently teaches in the English department at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. Her creative work has been published in several collections and magazines, including Gyroscope Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, New Flash Fiction Review, and Litbreak Magazine. She loves the texture of words and the shiver of recognition that happens when you encounter language that moves you.