maybe we can
liberate ourselves
from holding onto
what happened before
we don’t have to subscribe
to Be Here Now but we can try
letting go of all that gets in the way

Y ESTHER COHEN,  GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Passover is a holiday with thousands and thousands of Haggadah possibilities. People have written them in many languages. There are actually Haggadah museums. Matthew Septimus and I celebrate, each year, with a poem, and a picture.

For Passover this year
I’d like to invite
people I love, some
I like well enough
some who are in the OK category
to picture a word where we all
in the course of the meal
say that it is possible
to forgive whatever happened to us:
betrayals, lies, even
annihilation. Some of life
so terrible it’s hard to believe
what people can do to one another
difference makes us crazy
how could he why did she
different values religions ideas
close family friend for 30 years
he didn’t invite us to his wedding
my husband’s Armenian relatives
all killed by Turks. Hurt is not
an abstraction an idea. There is
always a reason why, an
unsatisfactory explanation.
Weakness insanity priorities even
personality. This Passover
maybe we can
liberate ourselves
from holding onto
what happened before
we don’t have to subscribe
to Be Here Now but we can try
letting go of all that gets in the way
of how Pink Egypt is
how much we can love one another
this Passover we will pass over
injustice because we want to try
a holiday experiment
maybe just this year, we can liberate ourselves
by saying these words out loud
Forgive
Forgive
Forgive

hmm, it occurs to me  forgive you/him/her, forgive them, forgive myself...