Sweet Peace

“Dear Elaine,” she writes on a new postcard. “Okay. I confess. I struggle with it. Forgiveness. I do. Even though. I know, I know. We’re supposed to forgive everyone. To love everyone. We are. For our physical health. Mental health. All of it. I get that. I do. But surely, surely. Not everyone. Right? Not ex-husbands. Not mine.

I mean. I can forgive the others. I can. All those who wronged me. Abused me. You know. In the past. Disturbed individuals. That’s what they were. Truly. And yet, and yet. Forgive them? I can do that. Yes. Done. But my ex-husband. Disturbed? Oh, yeah. Forgiveness? No way. Not possible. Not for him. Not that I haven’t tried. I have. Again and again. Yet I can’t. And I don’t know why.

But then last night. That video I watched. You know. The one on YouTube. About St. Francis. How he loved everyone. Forgave everyone. And yet, and yet. Forgiveness wasn’t his focus. Imagine that? Peace. That was his goal. Alrighty! That I can do. Peace. Peaceful. My life. Ever since the day. I left him. My ex. Walked away. Me. Gone. Never to return. Sweet peace.

This is my life. Now. See? That I can do. Forgiveness? Forget it. Hey. If peace is good enough for Francis. It’s good enough for me. Okay, then. I think we’re done here. What’s next?”

Laura Stamps loves to play with words in her fiction and prose poetry. Author of 49 novels, novellas, short story collections, and poetry books. Forthcoming: “The Good Dog” (Prolific Pulse Press 2023) and “Addicted to Dog Magazines” (Impspired, 2023). Winner of the Muses Prize. Recipient of a Pulitzer Prize nomination and 7 Pushcart Prize nominations.