For You and For Me

For the time when I just stood there and watched
as the crippled man frustratingly try to get his wheelchair un-stuck in the gap of the train.
For the children in Palestine who have seen too much.
For my thumbs that keep recollecting the digits to his old phone.
For the Polaroid photos that are too stubborn to fade away.
For that night in the park when I couldn't stop shivering
while he put his hands under my sweater despite the many times that I said "no".
For the embarrassing moments that lurk in the back of my head.
For myself to let go of what I once wanted,
like the idea of happiness and the plans for the journeys of pursuing it.
"Happy? Psshhh, what a childish word," I would say to my younger self, "You don’t need that."
For the daughters who were too afraid to call home when they lost their jobs.
For the girl who asked her mom, "Don't you want me to be happy for once in my life?"
when she'd decided to move ten states from the family and leave her job in the law firm.
"Happy? What a stupid word," her mother would say,
"I don't want you to be happy. I want you to survive."
For the mothers after being slapped across the face by an "I hate you",
when all they wanted to do was to protect their children.
Forgo for now for your own sake –
For those who never Get anything in return.

For the trees being turned into timber.
For my left hand when I hit it with my right
because it kept pressing all the wrong keys on the piano.
For the poems that sting
and the writers with wicked values and twisted morals and a sick mentality like me.
For jealousy.
For lust.
For the Gods who can remove one's sin completely and without reservation
because there is no angel or human who has a heart so willing
to pardon wickedness done against others as a higher power does.
For demons as they're the ones that need it the most.
For rights and wrongs.
For what we cannot forget,
as if the things we hold on to aren't nearly as important as the things we let go of.
For the good ones.
For them who suffer for no reasons at all.
I'm really not that cynical.
All I wanted to do was to remember.
For ever for good for Heaven's sake –
For the ones who continue to Give.

It's either forget or forgive.
You can't do both;
you're either human or a Saint.