Nadia Giordana
Forgiveness
By Richard Dinges, Jr.

He often said
it was easier to forgive
than to forget. I do not
remember what he found
so hard to forget.
It was long ago
when I listened little
for what lay beneath
spoken words. I know
he held grudges.
I saw them linger
in his eyes when
he squinted at me,
as if trying to remember something,
for that last moment
just before they stilled
and I passed my fingers
over his lids to close them.
Eyes are harder to close
in death than in life.