Grandpa's Candies

“If forgiveness was sweet candy

You could buy it at the store

And hand it out bigheartedly

So bitter tongues wag no more

 

Yet before you extend generously

Be sure to take a bite

For who’s to know the sweetness

Might just set you right

 

I never did like candies

Not even as a child

As a boy, I thought it sassy

When a man I found them mild

 

As I turned old, I realized

There’s more than meets the eye

Some candies are so delectable

That it can make you cry

 

 I gave them to old colleagues

Who’ve retired just like me

All our grudges were dissolved

We were purged of misery

 

I shared it with my neighbour

We’d been loggerheads for years

He ate it with much relish

As his eyes brimmed with tears

 

When grandma was sick one night

I gifted her a candy, and my best smile

She clenched it in her feeble palm, saying

‘It took you quite a while’

 

You father is a busy man

Who hasn’t much time for me

But he faithfully comes once a fortnight

For his share of my candy

 

For the Sunday Offertory

I charitably offered a few

And later at the Confessional, whispered

Father, you can have one too

 

Whenever you are wronged by someone 

Who’s suffering from anger and hate 

Forgive them their malice and wrath 

For love’s, a human trait 

 

They too might have been hurt 

By someone’s insensitive word 

And since their wounds are yet to heal 

Their ways are strange and absurd 

 

You must give them a candy 

When they’re expecting you’re retort 

Soon all their anger would vanish 

All their vengeance forgot 

 

A pocket full of candies

To forgive and to forget

Wouldn’t cost you a lot at all

But will save you much regret

 

Blinded by loathe my entire life

It took my declining sight to see

That the very first of those candies

Should have been eaten by me”