ASKING FORGIVENESS

I did not say, “Yes, we had better part

Since love is over or must be suppressed.”

I did not say, “I'll hold you in my heart

Saint-like, and in the thought of your thought rest,

And pray for you and wish you happiness

In a better love than mine.”

I was another man to another woman,

Tears falling or burnt dry were nothing then.

I struck your heart, I struck your mind; inhuman,

Future and past I stabbed and stabbed again,

Cursing the very thought of your happiness

In another love than mine:

— Then left you sick to death, and I like death.

It was a broken body bore me away —

A broken mind — poisoned by my own breath,

And love self-poisoned.... Was it but yesterday?

— Forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive,

Forgive!