After Paul Laurence Dunbar

Yesterday I refuse to know,
I adamantly forget it,
And softly I remind myself
That truly I should leave it.

Yet today I preach to me,
All about forgiveness;
How do I let it go,
How do I not miss?

Yesterday I spoke to you,
Could anything be more grand?
Those months of boardwalk song
Where I buried my head in the sand.

Today’s sung by The National,—
“It takes an ocean not to break,”
Spiders drown on the surface
Of the opaque loving lake.

Let me forgive the wrong,
And embrace the right,
Let my mind leave behind
The pain, and not fight.

Yesterday my life meant you,
and today I pray for peace.
Pause, my soul, arise, arise,
Forgiveness means release.