A Penitent's Prayer {The Attys 2012}

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A Penitent’s Prayer

Dear God,

I know you’re up there,

looking down on me,

with Mammy right beside you,

bouncing baby on her knee.

Daddy said you’d hear me,

if I closed my eyes and prayed,

but Daddy isn’t here no more,

and the shadows, they have stayed.

I don’t know why they took me,

to this awful, dreary place,

forcing me to clean and sew,

for an uncaring, hidden face.

They promised me a teacher, lessons to attend,

but blisters, broken bones and scars,

are the shattered dreams I tend.

Beneath the weeping eyes of Jesus,

I recite my daily prayers,

but hunger is not satisfied

by lengthy morning affairs.

Mary Roberts died today—

no one shed a tear.

They threw her in an unmarked grave,

turned, and disappeared.

I beg you, God, to tell me,

will I be next to die?

Is my name to be forgotten

erased by all their lies?

Poor Annie has been taken,

the Sisters say she's mad,

her screams echo in the hallway,

reminding us, we're bad.

I’m sorry if I hurt you, God—

you weren't meant to see

the tears fall from the sunken eyes

of penitent forty-three.