Examination of Conscience

by Tim Bete | February 20, 2019 12:04 am

catholic poetry room[1]


This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is by Sally Thomas.                                                                                                                                

Examination of Conscience

Yes, I’ve done that. Yes, I’ve done that, too.
In fact, if we review the Deadly Sins,
We see my name on them, their name on me:
Wrath, Greed, Pride, Sloth, Lust, and Gluttony.
And Envy. I wish now that I were you,
Strange to myself. Each examen begins
With yes, as if I’d come to claim my own
Cold body on its slab. Yes, yes, I know me.
That pink wrinkle of a scar on my right knee
Gives me away, an error on my skin’s
Clean record, one 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.


Sally Thomas[2] is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Fallen Water (2015) and Richeldis of Walsingham (2016), both from Finishing Line Press. Her latest book, Motherland, was a finalist for the 2018 Able Muse Book Award, and is forthcoming from Able Muse Press in 2019.

Examination of Conscience first appeared at Patheos.


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Endnotes:
  1. [Image]: http://www.integratedcatholiclife.org/wp-content/uploads/Art.002-THIN.jpg
  2. Sally Thomas: http://www.sally-thomas.com
  3. Next poem: http://www.integratedcatholiclife.org/2019/02/poem-winter/

Source URL: https://integratedcatholiclife.org/2019/02/poem-examination-of-conscience/