prayers are just thoughts
platitudes that defer action
personal responsibility,
accountability
our claimed-to-be-sacred
utterances
resist what is deeper and divine
a collective call and cry
to mobilize change
when will our prayers
become Just thoughts
imagining
dreaming
tirelessly working
for a better world
where all children thrive
as young people alive
no longer captive
to idols
fashioned as guns
or supposed rights and freedoms,
privileges and powers possessed by too few
adults,
charged to be their protectors,
who polish more than they push
for goodness and kindness
non-violence and peace
maybe our prayers are just thoughts
as a Just world costs us what we worship
value
love
more than our children