Forbearance

The Good Listening Project - Yvette Perry - Forbearance poem.jpeg

He had recently lost his father to COVID-19 and was reflecting on forgiveness.

For the majority of his life with his father, they did not have a positive relationship.

However, in the last three years of life, his father lost his memory and his personality changed into someone who was loving and kind.

During this time, his father—who maintained his memory of his son—told him that he loved him for the first time.

In reflecting on forgiveness, he said he was at peace, mainly due to the love surrounding him from people in his life who allowed him to be who he was meant to be. He wished the same peace for his father.

Listener Poet Yvette Perry

Association of American Medical Colleges

March 2021

When he remembers

it is my face, my name,

that I am his son, and also

the joyful visits and nonsense conversations

and kindness—especially the kindness

and him finally telling me

I love you

It is the three years of this he remembers and

not the fifty years of trauma, anger, cruelty

of a man broken by three wars and

other things that break men

that I do not know

When he leaves this life to go to the next

I release his fifty years of debt that

has been repaid by my sons

who I am so different with than

he was with me, repaid by

all those who love me with

deed and word so strong that love

is made air saturating the breath in my lungs

I send him a prayer on a wisp of a sigh

I forgive you

I wish you well

Next life this will come

to him at odd moments in

small quiet fragments and

he will wonder if

he loved a son like me

in a past life or maybe

it was just a dream or a wish

but he will remember

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