Fran Schumer
Prayer
Sometimes, I take time to talk to you.
It takes all the strength I don't have,
like stopping a tidal wave.
Other times, it just comes.
And in the nothing answers you don't give,
problems you don't solve —
where are you, playing video games?
I get my answer
because in making time,
I've already remembered you.
Bio
Fran Schumer's poetry, fiction, and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, The North American Review, and other publications. She won a Goodman Loan Grant Award for Fiction from the City University of New York and in 2021, a Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing poetry fellowship. Her first chapbook, Weight, was published in 2022. Her poems have received monetary and other prizes. Schumer studied political theory at college but wished she spent more time reading Keats. www.franschumer.com