Back to Jonathan Penton's Artist PageTo the Artist's Page                    Back to the Unlikely Stories home pageTo our home page
I Want to Tear Out Your TongueTo Jonathan Penton's previous piece     StillnessTo Jonathan Penton's next piece


Sins

Thank you for offering to die for my sins
But why would I have committed them if I did not want to die?
I have served no penance of any variety, I have not fasted, nor conserved, nor
have I lain down on a bed of nails like a Buddhist.
I have not bowed down to worship you, though you tempt me in the desert with your deficient
charms and threaten me with starvation.
I have had sufficient opportunity. Give up now, as Lucifer gave up on you--

--Wait. I’m sorry. Let us be friends. After all, your father was my creator.
That makes us brothers, does it not? I cannot hate a sibling.
I do not blame you for the world your father created,
for the way the sun now goes down every day
or the way the shroud lifts over everyone’s head, in time.
I blame no one for the acts our other brothers and sisters have committed in your name.
Why hold a grudge? We were all raised the same way.
All I ask is that you leave me to my lechery,
as I leave you to your megalomania and martyrdom.
Though it might seem natural
to want to be closer to one another
I think it unwise.
You have your version of a sinful nature.
Please leave me to mine.

To the top of this pageTo the top of this page