a cheap prayer (upon spotting the son of God poorly plastered on a rinky-dink candle)

i found Jesus in a dollar tree the other day while perusing the snack options.

he stared at me from the bottom shelf accusingly as i tried to decide between haribo peach rings and pringles,

so i apologized for my worldly concerns and lifted him up to the yellow-white fluorescents,

upon which his visage took on a kinder complexion,

and he directed me to the peach rings.

we ate them on a bench in the odd fifty-degree december,

and i told him about being thirteen and not knowing anything but feeling like i did,

like i had befriended the world and all its people,

and he told me about love,

about letting go and being kind in spite of the world and all its people,

about the power held within a day,

while we marveled at the sun setting over the star market on comm ave—

the street dotted with the blinking red tail-lights of double-parked hondas.