We all seek forgiveness

for the things that we once did

I offered you acceptance

which you said, once, moved you so.

It's strange now, as I ponder

this painful irony

that you yourself cannot accept me

though the lives that I have hurt

are no greater than those you have injured too.

And even with your own confession

I sit not in judgment over you

I simply accept you for all your foibles

and I find in your human frailties

a window into your tender, worthy soul

that I would gladly sooth.

And I thought, too, that my own faults

would be as water under a bridge

for I'm not the wounded animal

when those things I once did.

But though you say it's not my past

that makes you walk away,

you still believe against all I've shown

that to yours I am a threat.

Now, most would answer in anger

that emerges from their pain

while others sarcasm or silence

to hurt the one who had hurt them.

And though I'll admit I thought that you

knew better my soul within,

I discovered that you really never knew me

or the man whom I truly am.

And even though the loss I feel

has a bitter, bitter taste,

I know that you shall one day rue

this mistake that you have made.

Believe me,

I take no comfort in the loss

that you will one day feel

and the terrible regret you'll one day know

will be greater than my own.

“No guarantee,” “all things change” are words you once told me

I never thought they'd change that fast,

it really blindsided me.

The irony of all of this is that

in fearing I would not one day be there for you

you, in fact, have deserted me:

preemption based on little more

than what may or may not be.

I hope that when the day arrives

when you want me back in your life...

...but, then again, who knows if I'll still feel the same,

and want you back in mine.

For twice your rain has poured on me

and twice I have endured this storm,

but to risk it thrice?  I cannot say;

“No guarantee” I make to you.