Confirmation Bias

Confirmation Bias
or We All Go To Heaven

The council of my inner voice
votes and the tally shows
I’m still mostly a good guy.

I rarely renege on promises,
shoplift from the liquor store
or cheat on my girlfriends.

But they’ve spent years crafting
this self-image and tend to ignore
marks left in the jerk column.


(Written for this week’s Living Poetry Prompt and Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt.)

About Bartholomew Barker

Bartholomew Barker is one of the organizers of Living Poetry, a collection of poets and poetry lovers in the Triangle region of North Carolina. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he makes money as a computer programmer to fund his poetry habit.
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7 Responses to Confirmation Bias

  1. JeanMarie says:

    Great first stanza. I like the ‘rarely’rarely steal’ lines too.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Very clever. By the end I forgot the council was self-made for a second because of the objective third person throwing a curve there.

    I liked it!

    Liked by 2 people

  3. berniebell1955 says:

    Aye…well……’nuff said

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Pingback: Council, Mark, Store – 2ndactblogger

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