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A Litany

A soft touch in the drought like brushing fire,
Pressed upon the skin, upon desire,
Providing an all encompassing flame
From her and her slender and fragile frame.
How my mind does want of her to be pinned.
I must be blown in the hurricane wind.
Oh my Lord! Does thou know how I have sinned?

Eager am I to partake in the feast,
Saving no cuisine, savoring at least
As much is offered, yet asking for more,
Starving sense with excess, the stomach's roar,
And my strong appetite does not rescind.
My gullet grows now to never be thinned.
Oh my Lord! Does thou know how I have sinned?

My rapacious pursuit for some power
Consumes my consciousness in this hour.
I pine for, I long for more than I need:
A house of gold and the money tree's seed.
My avarice and covetousness twinned
To keep my arrogance under-chagrined.
Oh my Lord! Does thou know how I have sinned?

I have had a listless heart. Without bliss!
I have filled it with emptiness and this,
By my acts of fool-hardy omission,
Has led all my joys to split in fission.
Nothing, my companion, so thick-skinned
Is a force unmovable, unreckoned.
Oh my Lord! Does thou know how I have sinned?

Uncontrolled are my feelings and they rage,
Ravishing better judgment in rampage.
Self-destruction, violence manifests.
Like sickness vile in its sweep, it mass infects,
Spreading swiftly ev'ry single second
When its foul reign is beseeched and beckoned.
Oh my Lord! Does thou know how I have sinned?

Deprive others—I must—so I may take.
With belligerent thievery I make
My sorrow to have someone else's good,
To proclaim, "Mine! " though another man should,
But, in my ears, the pleas have been deafened,
And no cries but mine will I have listened.
Oh my Lord! Does thou know how I have sinned?

Yet, for me ways, my many grievances,
I have learned through process of acceptance
That what I have done become who I am—
I am proud of myself though I be damned,
But I will confess my wrongs when questioned.
Lie? I will not! Why chose to be burdened?
Oh my Lord! Does thou know how I have sinned?

poem by Tim Stensloff
Added by Poetry Lover
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