God beyond all our gods
Lord of lords
You offer us life’s bread
crusty     warm     yeasty     buttered     dark–
as healthful as good–
and we gum day old white;
in the midst of Your banquet
we nibble away
at the same
Old
Kraft cheese sandwich
There is keilbasa to savour
there are tongues to speak
Kilimanjaros to scale
shells to shed
lives to live.

Lure us to
worlds richer than our world
selves deeper than our egos
other selves (within us and without us).
Woo us until
‘my’ means participation, not possession
‘my own’ means belonging, not exclusion
and each of us
join all of us
at Your exuberant party.
Please pass the wine

amen.

Frederick Ohler, Better Than Nice and Other Unconventional Prayers, Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989, 39.