The Interval* by Alice B. Fogel
If in the temporal world
the vast interstice
hanging in the balance
between the invocation
and the prayer—O
holiest interval—there
were no mercy and God
said yes?
If in the plenitude of yes
the measured world hung
in the hung invocation—O Lord
in heaven—
/—O World!—prayer then
showed no mercy
If God tarried in if
an intervention
between here and the holy
why why tarry
if between ready and death God said yes
you prayerful span of being
I am death
for finitude why not
say yes?
*adapted from “Variation 2: Interval,” from Interval: Poems Based on Bach’s Goldberg Variations