Can we be sorry

for what we have

never done wrong?

 

It may be that

others think our wrong

is fully clear,

and thus it deserves

a response of fulsome regret;

but in our authentic self

can we be sorry

if sorrow does not

live there of itself?

 

We could feign a response

and pretend,

like a wooden actor,

that remorse is flowing

from the conscience of our eyes,

and then say all the right words,

and beautiful poetic phrases of woe.

 

But in the end

we are left then with words

of meaning empty,

and we are left with

our conscience and

the legacy for ourselves.

 

24/10/2016