Bless me, Father
for i have sinned.

It has been 13 years
since my last confession

and these are my sins:
Unwitting support

of the majority
in my silence,

lack of action
beyond casting a vote,

lending an ear,
offering a hand

to the void
of social media:

i have no unvoiced opinion, but
that’s not and never will be enough;

yesterday, while others wept,
i slept

embracing my privilege
and freedoms

to escape
a fallen country,

unable to voice
or even approach

a reaction; i woke
with a twisting

pain in my gut, but
still know

nothing; white, male, hetero, cis
with just enough pagan in my blood

to be less than my neighbor,
but more than the silence

of voices around me
(barely audible)

in the tumult. How many
to hell with marys

will absolve
my guilt? 

How many
our forefathers

will offer salvation
to the widows

of democracy
and the orphans

of a flawed
constitution?