This statue, a collection of absences
No head, no arms, no calves
No face, no clothes
Cast in iron
The stark black barely glinting in the noon sun
Two stubs
Glazed over to preserve the pieces of what is left
The woman kneels
Bent on the small jagged rock
Textured silk against sandpaper
Her legs end where the rock drops off
Smooth and silent

The head,
Absent in physicality
Turns
Up: the joy, the majesty, the reverence
Legs kneel only to lift the body up
Arms bent to raise palms
Lost in reverie
Down: the pain, the debt, the deference
Knees grind into hard stone to cut through flesh to bone
Naked for elements to rip through the body
Groveling and pleading

The dichotomy of Prayer