Did you and you too think 
I never knew? 

Truly? 

I forgave you—
for that and so much more
again and again and again.
Make no mistake about what I knew
and when. Did you fail to see
the exit strategy I noted
in plain sight?

Perhaps you care
as much for poems, prayers
and promises as I do 
about your dark
decrees and
vanities

And of course I would have known
of the open door policy
and your ill intent
when it came 
to my life
or breath
or being

And God only knows
what other maniacal money
madness games you may 
have played, snickering
in the dark.

For every snicker
from any of you I have not
responded in kind but in
silence and in wholeness.
And despite your plotting 
to make me look crazy
I am the one who is
not at all out of her mind
but very much here
body, soul, spirit too.

Befriending foes you 
enjoy placing in the vicinity
trying without success to steal
infinity and what has always
been my birthright. 

And now it is time
to return what is mine
of your own volition.

Sure, you could mistake my tone
as you have before. I could even
give you some lines. Try the
someone I have thought fondly of
for all my life only to find they
liked to plunge a knife
in some effigy of me
as a little child.

Or one of many you or
certain others seem to have
roped into believing 
by charm or alarm 
or stories of harm
that I was other
than who 
I say
I am.

Let the record show
I am Dawn and I am deserving
of every good and perfect gift
my mother's mother held for me
and all the angels sophisticate
sing to life in me.

And she too stands with me
in this request. In fact, 
I make it at her behest

And in this instance
we both step back
and watch through tears
and eyes of only love.

Yes, I have forgiven
but life is for giving
not for taking.

Please correct 
your error.