File Cabinet Full of Sins

Chris Bodor
Florida, USA

At the Good Friday service
members of the parish
wrote their sins on paper
and one after another
they nailed their confessions
to the wooden cross
set up near the altar.

After the mass
before I cleaned the carpet
and swept out the chapel
I removed each piece of paper from the cross
and placed them in a small plastic bag.

The anonymous sins of the congregation
are locked in my second-floor office
in a file cabinet
near the paint cans
next to the dust mop
and the broken vacuum cleaner.