To Forgive, Divine

"Too err is human; to forgive, divine." - Alexander Pope

And yet—

there is a greater miracle

than the fracture.

A hand extended

not to strike

but to lift.

Forgiveness is not forgetfulness;

it remembers the wound

and chooses not to salt it.

It stands in the doorway of the past

and says,

You may not enter here again.

I have watched mercy

turn a room

from courtroom to kitchen.

Watched anger

unbutton its collar.

Watched two stubborn hearts

set down their armor

like farmers laying aside

their scythes at dusk.

To forgive

is to open the fist

without knowing

if it will be filled.

It is to say:

I see what you did.

I see what it cost.

And I choose

not to make you

pay twice.

There is something godlike

in restraint.

Something holy

in the decision

to break the chain

where it links through you.

We were built with hinges—

yes—

but also with doors.

And sometimes

divinity is nothing more

than this:

to open.