There are two types of people in this world – The ones who say sorry and the ones who don’t. The ones that won’t ever recognize when they did something wrong verses the ones who always feel the need to say that they’re sorry just to clear the toxic energy in the air. This is a poem about always feeling the need to be the bigger person and apologize, even when you haven’t done anything wrong. It is extremely frustrating to always feel this insecurity and overwhelming sense of hurtfulness hanging over you, like a dark cloud that you can’t seem to escape. This is about that progression and thought process.
Say you’re sorry, we have learned at a young age.
Yet that phrase doesn’t stay with us for so long,
Losing all meaning and sense of honesty,
And hostility on the other end is the one that remains.
Say you’re sorry, you’re parents will say to you,
When you have done something wrong,
But no parents will be there for you when you’re an adult,
When you’re in a business where you just have to play along.
Say you’re sorry, is what you’re teachers will say to you,
When you have lied, cheated, or stolen,
Yet as adults we do it all the time,
And no one feels the need to take the blame.
She cheated on him,
Leaving him in the cold,
Telling him she was too good for him,
And yet he is the one that feels the need to apologize for not loving her until she was old.
A guy tells a girl he likes her.
He takes her out for a good time.
A guy destroys her by never returning her call,
And yet she’s the one to apologize for anything that could have possibly gone wrong.
A woman calls another a bitch,
Claiming she is catty and snide,
Yet the calm one who speaks to no one,
Is sorry the moment she felt the need to apologize and alone she cries.
A man offers some sound advice,
To a younger generation who has no pride,
When the youth don’t take his word and listen to him,
He apologizes for the pain he has caught, because in his heart he thinks he didn’t try.
You did me wrong,
When you fed me a hand full of lies,
And yet, I’m the one to apologize,
Knowing somehow it is better than goodbye.
Why is it that we always feel the need
To apologize for the things we didn’t do wrong,
To the people that have angered, hurt and abused us,
In order to get by.
Why is it that we always feel the hunger
For calmness in the air,
Instead of letting their damn, worn words
Hang out in the chilled world to fry.
Why is it that we always feel the guilt
As if we could have done something wrong,
Knowing damn well that we’re right,
But we can’t let this go on for too long.
Maybe it’s time we stop being those people,
And letting the world take our pride.
That we step back from the world we know,
And create one where we don’t need to hide.
Don’t apologize for taking back yourself,
Don’t say sorry for the things you can’t deny,
Don’t hate the way that they look at you,
When you let them go and leave them blind
In the sorrys that they will never find.
Featured image by Pete Bellis from Unsplash.
