Indictment of the Parents Who Didn’t Take Me to Church

For not giving my week a structure besides school

and its poorly hidden rehearsal for work.

 

For letting me learn to fidget in an audience

and walk out on hearing nothing of use;

 

For teaching me to judge singers by their notes and not their thoughts,

for seeing next to nothing in stained glass.

 

For not showing me how to navigate a congregation of handshakes

without sweating and breathing fast.

 

For failing to bestow on me my birthright,

a tradition to reject.