black dog, forgive me.
forgive me, because i'm closing the loop again. i'm taking back the horizon that was yours by right; i'm putting the cold chain back around your throat, clinking like shackles on a penitent's wrists. you were free. you drank the wind like wine; you knew grass, dew, and the distance where earth melts into sky, and not a single shadow dared lie across your path. and me — i, a weak jailer of my own soul — i'm fencing you into nature's little box again. is that right? i don't know. maybe mercy; maybe a crime. but i promise: it's not forever. a day? a month? a year? what do those pale measures mean before eternity? you'll be free. no question. again.
for now, forgive me. you tasted freedom. you saw paradise, not the one promised from pulpits, but the one that opens only to an animal and a child: no words, no guilt, no fear. and now, with that aftertaste on your tongue, with that light stuck in your eyes, you stare at the world through bars. iron won't explain why. stone won't answer. and i won't either. i just hear your breath scratching the silence, and it feels like the night itself put on a collar.
but you'll find freedom. no question. i'll open the door. i'll tear off the chain. i'll say: go. and you'll walk away, without looking back, the way gods leave, the way dreams leave, the way everything we failed to be leaves.
just forgive me. forgive me, while the clinking's still audible. forgive me, while the night's still going. forgive me, while i still know how to beg.
black dog.
forgive me.