Daniel Patrick Sheehan

The Particular Judgment

In the screen of flames above the golden throne

I saw the drab unfolding of my life.

Time wasted, God said. You are a dull knife,

Never honed against things that might have been

If only you had wakened to yourself

And taken the difficult road for once.

Layabout, nitwit, liar, fool and dunce,

Ingrate who left his gifts upon the shelf,

Here we sit now, watching you live and sin,

Poisoning flowers and cultivating weeds.

And yet, for all those unending misdeeds,

You are my child and I will take you in.

Daniel Patrick Sheehan is a poet and journalist in eastern Pennsylvania. His poems have appeared in First Things, Dappled Things, Modern Age, and other journals.