by Dr. Antoinette Ellis-Williams

Prayers are offered by every sort of character
every moment of everyday.
Prayers to win fortunes
Prayers to make America great
Prayers to live
Prayers to die
Prayers from right wing Evangelicals
Prayers from daughters of enslaved persons in the
Mississippi delta
Prayers from LSU, Ohio State, Norte Dame and Alabama
Prayers by saints and prayers by aints
Prayers for food
Prayers for justice
Prayers from parents beating the gay demons from
their kid
Prayers from those living on park benches with newspaper sheets
Prayers from billionaires to have more mansions and land
God, may I ask whose prayers do you hear?
I read your Word it tells me those who are forsaken, those who are meek, those who are
outcasted
But why do the rich get richer
Why do the privileged write the rules?
Why are undocumented beaten and locked in cages
Some folks always catching hell
Why are Black girls’ bodies criminalized and
Black boys locked up for smoking weed
Does a Sovereign God play games with us?
Whose prayers do you hear?
If I’m all alone, will you hear my pray or are they
Drowned out my those with more Facebook friends?

I prayed and still he died.
She never prayer yet her son lived.
Whose prayers do you hear?
Can you hear my prayers?
Whose prayers
Do
You
Hear?

Dr. Antoinette Ellis-Williams, PhD is a 20-year Newark resident. She is a professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at New Jersey City University. Dr. Ellis is also an artist, playwright, poet, and scholar. Learn more at https://www.antoinetteelliswilliams.com/about

Featured image: Dr. Antoinette Ellis-Williams: “Call her Grace”, 2020 digital collage mixed media metal print.