Sprig Of Mercy

Spidery grape stems prickle my hand as I take the fruit
As I search for the truth
Should I be doing this? Would the others approve?

This little seedling yearn to grow
But something inside restricts blood flow
I forgive you
The words like eucalyptus on my tongue, medicinal
But I hold them back and swallow

This world is extracting my seeds
One by one by one
It is filtering the pulp from me
I can't breathe

The blade lances through carotid artery
Grazing bone; a soul goes home
Should I feel guilty? Should I grieve?
This is all that's left of me

Brambles coil around my ribcage
Bringing on the next painful stage
And strangles my heart like barbed wire
You disrupted a wonderful choir

The punishers become the punished
Our cherubic children grow up to be bogeymen

I forgive you
Those beautiful, impossible words
That anti-freeze quelling my righteous rage
Extinguishing the fires of vengeance
Until only doubt is left

But if you let it, will doubt turn to understanding?
Will the bogeyman finally return to his hunting ground?

This fruit is sweet and succulent but has not been refined
It contains the hope and reason I tried and failed to find
I reach for it, grasp it, and something melts inside
And the crimson blooms of hatred finally die

I forgive you
For the fates you've altered
I forgive you
For the times you faltered
I forgive you
For the mind you were born to
But most of all
I forgive myself for hating you