I almost chose not to share this poem due to the potential of being misunderstood. Of course, that’s art. Interpretation is everything.
Two thoughts accompany this posting. First, it is possible to fully forgive someone without invalidating your own feelings of pain, loss, and betrayal. Those feelings don’t need a moral high ground to be powerful and meaningful.
Second, those kinds of feelings are the well from which poets drink most deeply. So, as an exercise, I chose to see if I could go back and mine something passionate out of a painful part of my life that is now past and for which the emotion has drained away.
Partially, I wanted to know: Could I allow myself to taste that bitterness again. I also wanted to find out, if tasting the bitterness were possible, could I leave it behind without an aftertaste?
The answer to the first question was: Yes, it was possible. The answer to the second question: It was not possible. But, the aftertaste was sweet.
His Moon, Her Ocean 