hemofgarmentThey said
she’s a sinner
that red Mary
she’s got shadows in her soul
everyone’s done a wrong
what’s yours?
she couldn’t recall a sin she committed
though many done against her still
showed in bad light shining as scars will
what constitutes a sin?
not picking up a fallen book or
neglecting the heart of an aching soul?
not burying a bird nor preventing its death
sailing into glass as you ate your day
she’d let
the dinner burn accidentally making snow flakes for the windows
she’d been too tired
to scrub the tile in the bathroom before the guests arrived
she’d given herself the bigger helping on occasion
but more often than not she made room for the needs of others
cramped with heads on her lap driving in the car
give an inch take a mile convert to metric lose measure
what comes first? you?
she knew she hurt herself when eclipsing
and if that was a sin
she was a sinner plenty
scratching charred lines of dislike across herself
like a map plotting direction with blooming red pins
but lord if that is a sin
to turn and bear our fangs within
when the world is full of clamoring snake oil salesmen
hawking their false wares
building temples for closed gods
telling children who are raped
no you cannot abort this is gods wish
then she was a sinner of the very worst sort
for her belief was
those who are without blemish don’t exist
but some of us are good
not living under the almshouse for the spiritually impoverished
she didn’t know what it meant to
live in sin be born to sin
she felt sin was a choice
you made or did not make
and she did not choose
to sin except
by laying in bed reading
on Sunday listening to
the vowels of the faithful
herding their flock