by Jeffrey Essmann

He didn’t die so we could be afraid;
So we could hold the world and its ingrown
Insanities as fact, as ready-made;
As if all that had not been overthrown. 
He didn’t die so we could be alone;
So we could once again believe the lie
The serpent told: that we were on our own.
Our lives since then were endless alibi,
And that’s why, in the end, He didn’t die.

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, Agape Review, the St. Austin Review, U.S. Catholic, Amethyst Review, Modern Reformation, The Society of Classical Poets, and various venues of the Benedictine monastery with which he is an oblate. He was 2nd Place winner in the Catholic Literary Arts 2022 Assumption of Mary poetry contest and 1st Place winner in its Advent: Mary Mother of Hope contest later that year. He is editor of the Catholic Poetry Room page on the Integrated Catholic Life website.