Donald Jeffrey Hayes, "Confession" (1927)
By Donald Jeffrey Hayes
She kneeled before me begging
That I should with a prayer
Give her absolution
(How golden was her hair!)
She begged an absolution
While the moments fled,
She thought my tears were pity
(My Soul, her lips were red!)
She begged of me forgiveness,
God you understand
(For pale and soft and slender
Was her dainty hand!)
She begged that I should pray You
That her Soul might rest
But I could not pray, O Master
(Ivory was her breast!)
Published in Opportunity, July 1927