Forgive to Forget

When I was younger

I thought forgiveness was

A decision

That you made once

And that the words

“I forgive you”

Were all it took

To forgive and forget

But I’m starting to realize

Forgiveness is

A decision

Yes, that’s true

But sometimes

You have to forgive

The same person

The same situation

The same fault

The same pain

Every day every hour every moment

For far too long

You think you’ve forgiven

And then you realize you haven’t

And you have to forgive again

It turns out

That you don’t

Forgive and forget

You keep forgiving

And then at some point

You forget

And it’s only when you’ve forgotten

That you’ve forgiven all the way

You don’t forgive and forget

You forgive to forget