justified

well
it’s the way I feel
reminders of
what’s
wrong with me
and
by what I’ve done

in the world that doesn’t help
at all
save by distraction
rather than by what we want

justice to face
it
and with mercy to re-shape the wrong
into what’s bearable
with
some good feeling after
and to have the day and hope for the day
following

then is
disclosure proper or what’s called for
anyway
to say
and then to hear
as if
well
a dare at openness
the truth-or-dare at parties
on one’s own
on a Friday
how
to play
more so how to win

though sometimes
rather often
really
how to endure everything
as
Clint might way
the good
the bad
the bestial

the thing that gets inside
to goad what’s
there
to threaten to take over
in ugly context
should we
resist
and so hot on our own
we do the sin
all
thoughts of moralizing after
the
denial or
the judgment
to reveal while in the process all
deliverers shall hide
their
own

mercy all around
then
to wish and like a miracle
receive

call
it forgiveness
call it grace as means to save
to choose again believe
in the confusion of not knowing what
to face
by judgment now
deserved
with the challenge now of owning
undeclared
as in unformal righteousness
that
may endure and how to begin

if with a priest or other
confessor
maybe hope
to God
directly
then
a friend
and then on one’s own
like
after services
more so on this occasion
the most
of the time in which
to live

c l couch


photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash