Forgive me:
I have belittled you.
I have mocked and laughed at you.
I have imagined your shortcomings were not my own,
and freed of responsibility for our shared insanity,
     made it yours alone.
But it isn't yours alone–
    it may not be yours at all.

Forgive me:
I have discounted you.
I have decided you didn't matter
because you failed to share my view of the world,
because you were shaped by other values and experiences–
    colors and sounds unfamiliar to me.

Forgive me:
I have ignored you
    because your intelligence surpassed mine,
    or your beauty,
    or your skills,
    or your easy acceptance by others,
    or your easy acceptance of yourself.
It was easier to pretend you didn't exist
    than to acknowledge an existence
    before which I felt inferior.

Forgive me:
I have used you.
I have made you a step on the way
    instead of a stop on the journey.
I have kept you in the dark
    so I could hoard your light.
I have sent you into a wilderness
    so I could remain comfortably at home.

Forgive me:
I have been unkind,
when all I wanted was to matter.

Text, image and audio © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

To listen to this poem, Download Forgive Me