Villain

The most important thing we can do in this life is forgive,
a medium told me once. She offered no reason for this. 
But what of the gaze of the man who harmed me?

At my brother’s wedding, we stood for the first time
in a social circle. We both remembered his fist.
The most important thing we can do in this life is forgive.

His eyes, dark with aversion. The way in the room 
in the basement he trapped me. Was I nine? Was I six?
So what of the gaze of the man who harmed me?

In so many ways, that room is where I was born.
He delivered me, naked and wrenched and sick.
The most important thing we can do in this life is forgive.

Last night, a ghost tugged at my feet and I saw her
flash past me, my nocturne, my prismed abyss.
And what of the gaze of the man who harmed me?

I waited for her return, my cats curled along my body
as in two lungs. I was alone. I’d always been alone.
The most important thing we can do in this life is forgive,
So what should I make of the gaze of the man who harmed me?