A Prayer by Emily Dickinson — Read

I meant to have but modest needs, / Such as content, and heaven; / Within my income these could lie, / And life and I keep even.

But since the last included both, / It would suffice my prayer / But just for one to stipulate, / And grace would grant the pair.

And so, upon this wise I prayed, -- / Great Spirit, give to me / A heaven not so large as yours, / But large enough for me.

A smile suffused Jehovah's face; / The cherubim withdrew; / Grave saints stole out to look at me, / And showed their dimples, too.

I left the place with all my might, -- / My prayer away I threw; / The quiet ages picked it up, / And Judgment twinkled, too,

That one so honest be extant / As take the tale for true / That "Whatsoever you shall ask, / Itself be given you."

But I, grown shrewder, scan the skies / With a suspicious air, -- / As children, swindled for the first, / All swindlers be, infer.