Foreshadowing

Friday's cannot just deteriorate
I on the other hand can quite easily

The first three hours are bearable
But soon after that I find myself
Willing this non muslim to recite
Any surah would do, I think
Because the more she speaks
the more I think of the irony
She speaks of genes and base sequencing
Microorganisms , batch culture growth
Enzymes and all sorts of oddities
And there is no elephant in the room
But a universally accepted truth
That we focusing on little details miss
I didn't make these things and neither did you
I didn't create myself or you
There is a God
And today is Friday
What are we doing?

It took six hours before I
Entered a lonely prayer room
The turn out on the other side of the barrier
Is male and quite a few
But here there is just one prayer mat
A strange spaceful silence fills the rows

Do I need to get used to lonely Friday's
Empty prayer rooms,
Quran whose pages are seldom touched
Is this what it boils down to
When the going gets tough
And all disappointment lands on myself
I am without excuse
The names of the absent
Slip from my tongue, onto upturned palms
In ten,twenty years time will there still be lonely Fridays
Will it just be me, a one woman congregation
Will all we have is prayers sent between lovers
And faintly held memories of Quran in the wind
A khutbah, azaan, outdoor sujoods
Sincerity and sincerely how much weight
Will these things hold
the earth of the grave from our faces
Because it is all so few and far between
Falling short in friday dreams

My heart is heavy with the trivial
It is pulling me down
Deeper,
Deeper still
To unload and unpack
Settled dust
And hearts that are black
To wipe the slate, to pray
To improve
Why that room is ever empty
Does not make sense to me
To sleep through
dreamlike Fridays
Regrettable, oh so regrettable