Prayer for Image's Sake

Give us this day the photographs not taken. Handfuls of film poured away in the river. Memories misplaced between pages of light.

Spare us this day regret's exposures. The blankness of lives that we never used. Spare us the shutter of your wrath, your eye that bruises, and all the vulnerabilities with which our flesh burns clear.

Let no one leave who cannot be forgotten. Let no one stay except in our hearts.