Forgive Me for all the times I…

Forgot to look into your eyes 
As if I was meeting you for the first time
Or not leaning over really close
To catch your every word
Nor enjoying the warmth of you
Snuggling up within my space 
And forgetting 
You just want to be near

Yes, I have ignored you taking time out of your living
To enjoy my life
Forgive my hearing your story 
As an addendum to mine
Or ignoring your touch 
As if it were out of time
And my clamoring to be seen 
When I forgot your face

I heard your pain and saw your tears
But hid my tears for shame
Forgive me for turning my music up so loud
I could not hear myself much less 
Seeing your dancing to my tune
And see your oneness dressing my loneliness 
And for so trying to get noticed 
I forget to notice you.

I have counted my own breaths
Forgetting why I breathe
Even how I breathe
Watching your story unfold
I was too busy to see it
How it fit with mine
Then you touch me again
Ignoring the past

Forgive me for letting you
Experience the dark
All alone
Lost in it
And my not even shouting in
Nor listening for an echo
Broken by your call
Broken by your whimper

And most of all
Forgive me for not loving you

Dedicated to the Jesus who has walked with me 
in the form of Linda for 53 years
on her 76th birthday.
I love you Linda!