Don’t Ever Forget
I have to feel pain
or I forget life
I forget how to live
When I forget about pain
in myself
in the world
I forget what it means to be human
and none of this
makes sense.
To forget the pain is to slip into madness
It is to wax upon a fantasy
where death and disease
where desire and disappointment
and all the rest
doesn’t matter
because they don’t exist
and
to me
that can only mean that life is gone
that I am dead
For, am I not a sinner?
Is this world not a hard
and sharp
and dangerous place?
A horror and a hell
every bit as much as it is
a heaven and a home
To forget the pain
is only to pretend
and forget ourselves
and forget our God
and forget our need
and our longing for salvation
