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Confessional

The genesis of my narrative invention

Began in the throes of Catholic confession,

What counted as a sin?

Where should I begin?

“I have disobeyed my mother

Seven times, father,

I have used bad words

Three times, father.”

The numbers were arbitrary.

The sins, venal.

I had to confess something.

 

“Two ‘Hail Marys’ and an ‘Our Father.’”

The priest passed sentence

And, at the tender age of seven,

I emerged, purged.

Should I have suffered bad luck

And been hit by a truck,

I would still have gone to heaven!

 

I confess that I did lie to the priest!

Had I disobeyed my mother?

Had I used bad language?

I had no need of sin, at the time.

 

This was not about forgiveness -

It was more concerned with control.

Peering into every child’s soul,

Making us fixate on our guilt,

Until we are frail and old…

 

 

Father, it is fifty years since my last confession.

My unrepented sins have banked up,

Like a coastal shelf, against a flooding tide.

They are too many and too various to innumerate,

My blackened soul has been abandoned to fate.

 

‘Doubt and confusion’ describe what I feel.

 

I have prayed to God in darker times,

Balancing my atheism with Christian zeal.

 

So, please add hypocrisy to the list of my crimes.

 

 

 

 

◄ In the Shadow of St Leonard's

A Poetic Complaint. ►

Comments

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John Botterill

Tue 21st Jun 2022 12:46

Thanks for the likes Aisha and Stephen A. 😀

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John Botterill

Mon 20th Jun 2022 19:53

Thanks so much for your comments, Holden. Glad the humour came across 😊👍

Holden Moncrieff

Mon 20th Jun 2022 02:01

A brilliant poem, John, you present the guilt-generating machine of confession with great humour! 😎

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John Botterill

Sun 19th Jun 2022 22:54

Thanks Stephen and Rose. I enjoyed both your responses to this poem very much. Dave Allen was a class act and as irreverent as Rose ( who is another class act). As are you, Stephen! 😁
Thanks for the likes Hayley, Frederick and Russell 😀

<Deleted User> (9882)

Sun 19th Jun 2022 21:18

Oh nice one Mr B!

Did you by any chance hear the one about Jesus coming forth?
well-he only got a book token while Judas hung around after the race and despite not even entering still managed to get.....

thirty piece's of silver! 😂


RC 💋

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Stephen Gospage

Sun 19th Jun 2022 09:48

I think this one of your best, John.
'I emerged, purged' - wonderful. And the Larkinesque allusion 'coastal shelf.'
As a regulation C of E child, my only experience of confession was watching Dave Allen - not a bad introduction!

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