<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><h2 class="wp-block-heading" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 20px 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-size: auto; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; line-height: 24px; font-size: 25px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-size: auto; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; font-weight: normal;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">My Grandmother as Prayer Warrior</font></span></h2><p class="wp-block-paragraph" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-size: auto; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><br><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-size: auto; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box;">for the woman who knelt so we could stand<br></em><br>She never raised her voice—<br>not once.<br>But the house would tremble<br>when she prayed.<br><br>No need for pulpit or praise,<br>she sanctified the living room rug,<br>made altars out of ashtrays,<br>turned grief into gospel<br>with nothing but breath<br>& a Bible missing its back cover.<br><br>When the world gave us nothing<br>but “no,”<br>she’d murmur our names<br>into her cracked palms<br>like they were seeds<br>& whisper:<br>You gon’ bloom anyway.<br><br>This is the woman<br>who baptized me<br>in sweet tea & second chances,<br>sang Precious Lord<br>while shelling peas,<br>& taught me<br>that prayer don’t need pretty—<br>just purpose.<br><br>She prayed like fire:<br>not to burn the wicked,<br>but to light the way for the lost.<br><br>My grandmother didn’t fear no devil—<br>she’d already buried too many<br>to be scared of ghosts.<br><br>I watched her lay hands<br>on my mother’s grief,<br>rub the sorrow from her scalp<br>like it was dandruff,<br>like deliverance could come<br>through repetition.<br><br>She believed in a God<br>who listened<br>especially when the angels didn’t.<br>Believed in a love<br>that outlasted funerals,<br>believed in me<br>when I was nothing<br>but shaking bones<br>& poems too scared to be called holy.<br><br>& when I write now—<br>when I teach,<br>when I fold grief into metaphors,<br>when I let my voice quiver<br>but not disappear—<br>I know it’s because<br>her prayers<br>are still ringing through me.<br><br>I am the answered prayer<br>she never got to see bloom.<br><br>Still, I rise.<br>Still, I speak.<br>Still, I carry her name<br>like scripture beneath my tongue.<br><br>Because my grandmother<br>was a prayer warrior.<br>& I?<br><br><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-size: auto; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box;">I am the war.</em></font></p><p class="wp-block-paragraph" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-size: auto; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-size: auto; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- </em><span style="letter-spacing: -2px;">Darius Phelps</span></font></p></div></div></body></html>