The penances we pay
are not in response to a 'last notice' letter in red print, misaddressed
or an overfamiliar Christian-name-laden one-sided conversation
They emerge unbidden, from inherent goodness (that goodness we fretfully strive to generate
at the behest of conscience)
Does conscience take the form of those wronged, bellowing out from the shade of memory
your name
or do little pieces of these now-nearly-nobodies- mercifully half-forgotten dwellers in your mind's Elysian Fields of blessed release from thoughts of sin unwittingly committed- break away from them and adhere, to sit beneath the surface of the skin like a scar on the spirit
and call your name
