Zeina Azzam has earned an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2021 Poetry Contest
![Photo of young woman](https://streetlightmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/kyle-broad-P9rQn2qcEV0-unsplash-1024x683.jpg)
Forgive Me
For lying to the teacher in the school yard
Talking ill of my friend behind her back
For making an excuse to leave early
while visiting my mother in her sick bed
For walking away from a lover
without explanation, running from remorse
I have felt guilty about slapping my small son’s hand
so many years ago
About acting impatient, bitter, callous,
spiteful, unfriendly, or mean with those I love
and those I don’t. These thoughts return often
like mosquitoes in summertime, ready to attack
I try to shoo them away but hear a continuous buzz
Should I let them exact blood, for penitence?
There is no peace in my ears or in my humbled heart
till I can imagine forgiveness
granting a measure of clemency
to the me in the mirror
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