Lenten Sonnet #33

Examination of Conscience

Yes, I’ve done that. Yes, I’ve done that, too.

In fact, if we peruse the Deadly Sins,

We see my name on them, their name on me: 

Wrath, greed, pride, sloth, lust and gluttony –

And envy, when I wish that I were you

Instead of me. Each examen begins

With yes, as if I came to name my own

Dead body on a slab. Yes, yes, that’s me.

That pink wrinkle of a scar on my right knee

Gives me away, that error on my skin’s 

Clean record, that lie I told when I was nine.

Just skinned, that’s all. These band-aids? Nothing . . . Only

The mouth beneath them told the truer story.

I peeled them off me, one by painful one.