Tonight's Poet Corner: Mea Culpa

Mea Culpa
by Belinda Roddie

I'll make it up to you
with peanut butter candy
with six packs and a crinkled bag
of salt and pepper misery

I'll make it up to you
with words with half a meaning
with orange peels and in betweens
when we both have time to breathe

If it's any comfort
I never said I was perfect
Not once did I claim purity
when my cuticles are ashen

I'm not attempting to persuade
you that I have ever been cleansed
I've sewn a name across my chest
to remember my original sin

If people start to wonder
why you still put up with me
I'll make it up to you
with salt and pepper misery