Neat Poem

How do we forgive our fathers?
Maybe in a dream.
Do we forgive our fathers for
Leaving us too often
Or forever when we were little?

Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage
Or making us nervous because there never
Seemed to be any rage there at all?

Do we forgive our fathers for marrying
Our mothers?
For divorcing or not divorcing our mothers?

And shall we forgive them for their excesses
Of warmth or coldness?

Shall we forgive them for pushing or leaning?
For shutting doors or speaking through walls?
Or never speaking or never being silent?

Do we forgive our fathers in our age?
Or in theirs?

Or in their deaths saying it to them
Or not saying it?

If we forgive our fathers,
What is left?

From the movie “Smoke Signals”

~ by nancyfenn on November 25, 2007.