Austere Forgiveness

A Poem — after Ginsberg

Photo by Nate Bell on Unsplash

Forgiveness for the town criers
Forgiveness for the ballot counters
and their technological aids
Forgiveness for the health of the
old and sick
Forgiveness for the narcissism
that struck when you married me
Forgiveness for running social bodies
onto reefs of hope
then dashing them into an iceberg
Forgiveness for never
having joined a proper union
Forgiveness for governmental failure…