SINNER – after Nina Simone/Exodus
Sinner(girl), You oughta be prayin’
I’ve done drugs
that I didn’t know existed
even after Nancy Reagan’s campaign
to Just Say No
I’ve betrayed
people that I love
who once loved me
which banishes me to the lowest circle
of Dante’s Hell
“I can’t hide you,” the rock cried out, all on that day
St. Augustine said
We are all sinners; hopeless and cursed
with these filthy urges
to fuck.
The women, at least.
So I run to the sea; it was bleeding; it was bleeding, all on that day
Revelation says
we will all be judged.
Most of us are goners
lost in an acid-trip of an apocalypse
all on that day
So I run to the sea; it was boiling, it was boiling, all on that day
A sinner;
I am, I am, I am
No absolution; no redemption
And do you know what?
I don’t give a
fuck.
POWER. POWER. POWER. POWER. POWER. POWER. POWER. POWER. POWER. POWER.
©2021 Shannon Frost Greenstein All rights reserved.
Shannon Frost Greenstein resides in Philadelphia with her children, soulmate, and persnickety cats. She is the author of Pray for Us Sinners, a collection of fiction from Alien Buddha Press, and More., a poetry collection by Wild Pressed Books. Shannon is a former Ph.D. candidate in Continental Philosophy and a multi-time Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Pithead Chapel, Bending Genres, Epoch Press, X-R-A-Y Lit Mag, and elsewhere. Follow Shannon at shannonfrostgreenstein.com or on Twitter at @ShannonFrostGre.
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