Lord,

give me a Buddha ear

to hear the river sing

Hosanna!

Give me a Hindu hand,

generous with rose petals,

that trails fingers in the flow

from the Ganges to the Jordan.

Give me an Islamic eye

that shuts by instinct

on idols

and a Dervish heel

to whirl around the minor Meccas

found wherever there is whispered

a solid prayer.

Give me a Jewish dream

of nations and kings restored,

of special favours  from the Lord,

of pertinence to a land.

Stretch my mathematics

so that my faith agrees

that one and one and one

is one

and when all is done

and said

keep me silently suspended

in the unspeakable.