empire

an accounting of sins, O God of pardon,
for which You must pardon us:
     for the sin of sugar, and for the sin of tea;
     for the sin of cotton, and for the sin of spice;
     for the sin of poppy heads, and for the sin of leather;
     for the sin of gold, and for the sin of silver.
for the sin of the spinning jenny.
for the sin of armadas.
for the sin of exotic plants.
for the sin of the atlantic’s sunken cargo.
and for the sin, the original sin, of blood:
     for all the blood spilt in foreign lands, both by our hand
and because we did not restrain
the hand of another.
  
our statues of Nike Victoria Imperatrix,
her gaze fixed on the harbour’s horizon,
we shall tear down
and throw in the sea.
may her name be forgotten
on our shores.