<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Your Last Breath Was Our Forgiveness<\/strong><\/p>\n We didn\u2019t speak Nine days after my other grandma died, An hour later Dad called I went to see you because my vision told me to I arrived just as they placed your breathing tube. I slept in your room On your last day Then you and I, and the setting sun, <\/p>\n Note: this poem was originally published in Cordella Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your Last Breath Was Our Forgiveness We didn\u2019t speak for years \u2014 your words always hurt. Nine days after my other grandma died, I awoke from a vision of myself sitting at your funeral on a hard wood bench. I was near the back of the church. I tried to remember a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12701"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13530,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12701\/revisions\/13530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nfor years \u2014
\nyour words always hurt.<\/p>\n
\nI awoke from a vision of myself
\nsitting at your funeral
\non a hard wood bench.
\nI was near the back of the church.
\nI tried to remember a time
\nyou might have loved me.<\/p>\n
\nto say you had been rushed to the hospital,
\nyour aorta torn.<\/p>\n
\nand because I didn\u2019t want you to leave, incomplete.
\nI didn\u2019t know until later
\nthat you had asked for me.<\/p>\n
\nFor a few seconds, we spoke a truce with our eyes
\nand then you shut them and began your transition.<\/p>\n
\nin a hospital chair,
\nbecause I couldn\u2019t bare the thought of you dying alone.
\nBut the truth is,
\nit was the only time we were able to love each other
\nwithout all the baggage.<\/p>\n
\nI touched your hand.
\nI had never felt your skin.
\nIt was so soft, beautiful,
\nonly gently lined with age.
\nI told you not to be afraid.<\/p>\n
\nall let go together.
\nYour last breath was our forgiveness.<\/p>\n
\nJennifer Lothrigel<\/strong> is a poet and artist residing in the San Francisco Bay area. Her work has been published in Trivia – Voices of Feminism, Narrative Northeast, Poetry Quarterly, Firefly Magazine, The Tishman Review, Five Poetry<\/em> and elsewhere. Find her on twitter @Jlothrigel<\/p>\n