Always already
you've forgiven me.

I failed you.
I turned away.

I convinced myself
I didn't need you.

I made myself forget
how much sweeter

everything is
with you in it.

I was afraid
I wasn't enough.

And when I woke up
to how I need you

how I'm a better me
when I'm with you

there was no room
for shame between us.

No recrimination.
Only love.

The liturgy of Yom Kippur begins with a prayer called Kol Nidre, "All the Vows," and at the end of that prayer we sing three times Vayomer Adonai, salachti kidvarecha -- "And God said: I have forgiven you, as you have asked."

I'm participating again this year in #blogElul, an internet-wide carnival of themed posts aimed at waking the heart and soul before the Days of Awe. (Organized by Ima Bima.) Read #blogElul posts via the Elul tag; last year's posts are now available in print and e-book form as See Me: Elul poems.