God, grant peace to those
affected by violence and brutality.
Heal the oppressive wounds
our people have caused.
Bring mercy to those
scarred from their families’ absence.

I pray for the children
without their mothers,
and the mothers
away from their children.
I beg for the fathers,
who provide for their families,
to feel the embrace of our love.

For we all must treat the foreigner
as a native,
as written by Your word.
And may Your judgment
righteously fall
on those who defy these words.

Amen.

-Eli StClair,Appleton, WI