A Forgiveness

By:Lorna Goodison

Forgive yourself
for loving the voodoo priest
who drinks your blood at night
through undermining tubes.
Forgive yourself for loving
the children of salt
who left their brine on you
so you dream always of waterfalls.
Take the base betrayals
stamped with deceit
throw them to the forgiving air
and invoke transmutation.
In time they will fall
as rains of redemption.
Forgive yourself for loving
sailors
with brass trunks
filled with lies
for loving flying stuntmen
when you needed earthbound
eyes.
Forgive yourself then
forgive yourself now
and know that you cannot change
someone
if only they would let you
love them.
All changing (like yours)
is light from within
all you can be is witness,
and love yourself now
enough to know
that you are lit
and that light will draw
more light to itself
and that will be light
enough for a start
to new life and a self
forgiven heart
and being new
just be.