Oh, How It Hurt

ashamed-head-in-hands1

 

Oh, how it hurt
That refusal
That rebuff
Cut and wounded
I withdrew
Licked my wounds
Plastered my sores
Bandaged my cuts
My bruises cold-iced

My shame . . .
Yes, in truth,
Perhaps it was
More shame
Than a broken heart

Pride undermined
Ego squashed
That doesn’t help
Because
There is more shame
In it being shame.

I see that now …
And am ashamed.

 

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William Blake ‘Mired in Sin and Shame: Original Sin’ … c.1800