Before the Lenten ashes fade and thin,
I might remind myself of those regrets
More earnest than a taste for sweets
Or bad TV and that my conscience meets
With frightening ease at times far greater sin.
I might recall the truth the sign abets:
The cross traced on my forehead just reflects
A deeper penance far below the skin.
Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them Dappled Things, the St. Austin Review, Amethyst Review, Pensive Journal, Forma Journal, and The Society of Classical Poets. He is a certified catechist with the Archdiocese of New York, a Benedictine oblate of St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown, NJ, and editor of The Catholic Poetry Room.