Forgive and Forget

Lovers are easy.
You win them for a season
-or maybe a lifetime-
with pretty words
and sentiment,
pressing joy into the other
because you think it won't last.
(Hearts tend to break,
after all,
and humans like to let a silly thing
like sorrow get in the way
of I am content.)

Friends are harder.
You lure them in with laughter,
with joy as well,
but you try and make them stay.
They do
the ones that count

What matters

is that lovers wound
but make you forget,
lost in silken words
and breezy touches.

Friends wound
but they heal.
They take scars
that are not their fault
and turn the hurts
into their responsibility.

It is different for all of them.
Some draw the hurt out with words
as one does a child from under his bed.
Some burn the poison away with action
-or literally fire-

Sometimes you don't know the hurt is gone
until it is,
drowned with the second cup of tea
that you wanted but
didn't ask for
and something tells you the first wasn't asked for either

That's why humans usually have both,
isn't it?
So we can omit
and we can mend,
forgive and forget.
just don't lose yourself in only one