helpless

you're soiled
and neither science nor religion
can change that

there is a process for this
the shame
the self-hatred
the smell
the eyes watching
the stale passage of time
until you are redeemed
not by your own initiative
or intellect

sometimes we are helpless
and the best we can do is sit in it
sometimes it takes a mother
to make us ourselves again
to wipe us clean
and show the wide-eyed loveable
that we all can be