by Jeffrey Essmann

A fitful disregard for the divine;
Apostasy and harlotry, despair;
A covenant made only to forswear—
The sins of Israel I fear are mine.
A sentiment for slavery’s sweet confines 
Can lure me out of freedom unaware
And prompt in me a back-to-Egypt prayer
While smelling still the Red Sea’s salty brine. 
And though my desert’s of my own devise, 
God plagues me far less often than he might.
Instead he still insists that those he chose
Were chosen well and need but realize
He holds their wayward souls in pure delight
And loves them far much more than they suppose.

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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.