Roses

by Leila Meacham

Love ain’t got no business happenin’ to the young. Only the old be wise enough to treat it right.

“By remembering that what you cannot undo, you must accept. And in accepting—especially if they are happy together—you will find the grace to forgive yourself.”

Memory could be a terrible thing, he thought, an instrument of torture that persists in its work long after a man has suffered his time upon the rack.

Red to ask forgiveness, white to say forgiveness granted, pink to say forgiveness withheld.