Confessional
Bless me, father, for I have sinned
because my heart will not forsake me.
My words, my deeds, my deepest thoughts
conjoin me to a shadowed world
because I seek to love beyond
the precepts of your ancient strictures.
Find me, father, for I am lost—
a sojourner in a hostile land
condemned because I dare to seek
a touch or solace from a lover’s kiss
when pain belies my strength
and I seek love beyond your divination.
But most of all, because I am human,
unable to form a firm purpose
to amend my ways, find the path
where my soul is compatible
to your edicts from the past, beyond
the hellfire of your visions.
I cannot resolve this life,
these impassioned moments where I am
condemned for the heat of my flesh,
to the shackles, you wish to bestow.
Forgive me, father, for I will sin
because I am God’s child,
not His chattel.
Ed Bennett is a poet and reviewer living in Las Vegas, NV. His works have appeared in Touch: The Journal of Healing, Lavender Review, Quill and Parchment, and Lilipo. He is a staff editor for Quill and Parchment Magazine and the author of “A Transit of Venus.”
