She Follows the Birds to Freedom

What is Love Without Forgiveness?

Do not speak to me of love,
For you do not speak of love to those
who do not believe that they are worth it,
for the caged bird doesn't sing of love,
it knows better,
that dream has passed
and reality is reality,
The caged bird sings
of clear skies and sunlight,
of wind and song,
of singing songs that are not about hope
any longer.
Do not speak to me of love,
for anyone can love.
Anyone can see past the scars that the demons have made and love you all the more.
We love to love broken people.
It makes us feel better about ourselves,
as if we can see past the ordinary smiles
all the way to the back of a person,
can see their spine brittle
about to break with pain,
we pride ourselves in loving the broken to life.
We like being skilled in spotting brokenness when it does not want to be found.
And we are okay with scars
so long as someone else inflicted them.
So long as we have a third party to blame
for the pain of the one we love.
To love is easy.

It takes more than all we have to forgive.
To know and to let go.
It takes a strength we do not know we posses
to truly forgive a person for being less
than we thought they were,
for messing up enough to dim
the light in our eyes,
to see past the pain and damage they have caused and see the person,
and what they are worth,
to weigh in the balance what might happen
if you let them go and leave the words
never to be heard.
Forgiveness is a powerful force that souls in captivity long for,
sometimes because they feel helpless
to the pain they feel,
and other times because they are the ones that have caged themselves.
We look for it in everyone we see,
we yearn for it in everyone we meet,
and love...
Love is a terrifying thing to a soul
who is not strong enough to show
all their flaws, and skeletons and ghosts,
for what is love with out forgiveness
and we know we do not deserve either
let alone both.
SK