Confession Poem by Bill Upton

Reality eventually takes a front seat
Even though lifetime denials
Attempt to 'spin' its actual existence.
Men hide and delay and deny what their spirits know
To be true
Simply to lead more convenient lives,
Avoiding uncomfortable moral confrontations
Until being trapped into submission by inevitable certainties.
When was the last time an apology was given PRIOR
To exposure of facts?
When facing a judge in a court of law,
Why do hardened criminals invest in spanking brand new suits and ties,
Apparel they would not even consider donning outside the courthouse?
Isn't it odd that men deny the existence of God
Until they are faced with the up close existence
Of IV hookups, of foxhole residencies, of prison cell realities?
Out of nowhere, God seems to become real when death knocks
On the front door.

Down inside a man's soul
Is the silent reminder of the difference between right and wrong,
Mortality and immortality.
Apologies, masquerades hiding bad behavior, and death bed conversions
Are always desperate attempts for atonement.
They arrive late and they reek of insincerity.
Life is not a t-ball trophy dinner
Where every player-win or lose- gets a prize.
Life has consequences.
Life has hard landings for cover ups and denials.

While there still is time
Man must set aside smug behavior and lack of faith
That only leads to ruin.
He must pick up the baton of his innermost good self
To acknowledge the realities of this life...
And the next.