-- Needing Forgiveness --

by John Herlihy

I know what it’s like being in need of forgiveness.

Who claims freedom of the ways we transgress?

There, in our nature, selfishness and meanness,

Wrong impulses, followed by a need to confess.

When we do a thing wrong, left behind the guilt.

The choice always ours to do something other.

Yet we sink to the bottom amid the river’s silt,

Tempted into the wrong decision, then another.

We think we can do wrong and not be affected.

We go on our merry way as if nothing happened.

We can do no wrong in life; we are still protected.

Yet on the ghost of our deeds we never reckoned.

The evil act forgotten, the memory remembered,

Haunted by dreams that linger when we awaken.

Even our good intentions now feel dismembered,

To escape our bad behavior, escape being forsaken.

Finally set free of a burden one can no longer bear.

The weight of a burden lifted, without feeling remiss.

Forgive me my wrongs, repentance my fervent prayer,

An entreaty only realized thru an act of forgiveness.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Thursday 28 March 2024