Faithless, cruel, violent and vulgar
witness to abuse, silent I stood there.
I thought to forgive, it just would not come.
It happened again, again I stood numb.

I went into prayer, endless meditation,
Yet thoughts circled ’round, back to vindication.
The source of my obvious inability
to love without condition, still eluded me.

For grudges had always slipped through my hands,
I could not hold on, and memory waned.
But in this one case, I could not forgive,
Anger stayed on and poisoned my will.

Then did I realize the crime was not his,
It was I, the accomplice, I’d have to forgive
for ignoring a person, sad and in pain,
I swore on my life, never, ever, again.

Suddenly love lit my soul, healed the past,
forgiving myself was the answer I lacked,
for letting someone be treated so mean,
most important because that someone was me.

A thousand lives dance for mine
from when I close these tired eyes
until the light cuts the night,
when my strongest dream becomes
this life I lead, or so it seems.

Hints and clues and sometimes flashes
tell me of my soul's attachments.
What once appeared a mortal drive
to seek my bed and fall in deep,
seems more a promise I must keep.

Each night a pageant makes its way,
across the eons and the ages,
glimpses of a spirit's passion
in jumbled scenes, serene or shaken,
confront me, yet, I'm unawakened.

Thus I lie, suspended here,
my soaring soul gone on its rounds,
waking other lives, on other days, in other towns.
And whether my day grand or lowly be,
Somewhere, someone sleeps and dreams of me.