free verse poetry 1 min

The Modern Confessionary

Anna Burt

Age 18+ Category | Spring into Poetry Contest 2023 | San José Public Library

I call the witness the admissions officers

The professors

The administrators

The 20 bucks an hour just now graduates

Tell me about the truth

Tell me about the lies

Tell me about the human nature that bares its desperation in your hands

So much of it wanders your cabinets

So much of it will never leave them

The modern confessionary is full of judgment, and little else

There is little humanity in profit

And Sally May knows little else

And you know little of her

Her who is a document, her who is in every students pocket

Swimming at the bottom of every pool on the cold winter mornings that we decide to keep our heating off on and head to the library

I call you to witness

I call you to witness this

Because no one else will.

It's an empty sort of funeral.

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