Still Life With Sky, Coffee, Tulips, Anna Karenina, and God

Still Life With Sky, Coffee, Tulips, Anna Karenina, and God Shannon Pratson (bio) Grocery store tulips. Empty coffee cupin the sink. Morning sky smearedpink, like the insideof a salmon. I have been lonely in so many citiesand now I am lonely in absenceof the city, the crowd at the Metthat made me small and wholeas a seed. How do other people pray? I pray the way I read Russian novels,get as far as the first chapter. I go: Ahem! and then Please, God—and that's about it. I hope that hopeis enough. [End Page 278] I think a lot of peoplehave wasted a lot of timetrying to please God,that this is because peoplegot a lot of things wrongaround the third century— for starters, that Mary Magdalenewas a prostitute or that it evenmattered. I would rather spend my time learningto make pasta with my hands, growing squashout of the ground, finishingAnna Karenina, than guesswhat God wants.At a bright diner, I drag blueberry pancakethrough maple syrup and tell a friendI would like to be rich and for the rest of the dayI want to take a shower, wash my wordsoff my skin, watch their ink run,commas catchin the drain. I do not need to know what pleases Godto know that wealth and its ruthless pursuitdoes not please God. Just as I know I buy tulips from the grocery storeto stay the feeling of homesicknesseven if I do not knowwhat home looks like. [End Page 279] Shannon Pratson Shannon Pratson is a writer and artist. She holds an MFA from Virginia Tech and lives in London.