What Do You Want For Your "Sorry"?

— body language by Weddie Thiên  —

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Oh, listen up, I'll tell you true,

There is a word that flies from you!

It's small and quick, it's soft and neat,

It hops right out and hits the street.

I bump your cart, you bump my chair,

And POP, the little word is there!

But what's inside it? Who can say?

What do you want to buy from me today?

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Now here's my hunch, and here it is:

That word is often not for this,

Not for my bump, my chair, my day,

Not for the thing that came my way.

It's your coin tossed in a courthouse hall

Where Good and Bad keep score of all.

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You’re blaming yourself a little bit

So I will blame you less for it.

A pre-paid fine! A shrinking fee!

A discount you hope to get from me!

Or else it's praise you want to earn:

"See how I own it! See me turn!

See what a decent sort I am!"

The credit's counted. Slam, bam, wham!

And all the while, from start to end,

You never said it straight, my friend.

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So what does your “sorry” mean? I ask

With gentle voice and no harsh mask.

Are you asking me to blame you less,

Because you blamed yourself first? Yes?

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Now what of me? Suppose I goof.

Suppose I stomp right through your roof.

Suppose the thing I did or said

Went thundering around your head.

I want to show my care is true,

I want to ask what's up with you,

I want to learn a better way

To do this on some other day,

But I will not think that I am bad,

And hand you “sorry” to make you glad.

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So what does your “sorry” mean? I ask

With gentle voice and no harsh mask.

Are you asking me to blame you less,

Because you blamed yourself first? Yes?

​

So here's the thing I mean to say

With not one crumb of guilt in play:

"I see it landed hard on you,

And I care about that. Yes, I do.

So tell me what it's like in there.

And tell me what would show my care."

Then comes the pause. The quiet part.

It does as much as all the art.

It makes the whole thing offered, free,

And not a show put on by me.

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For nothing bad is set to weigh,

No sin for you to wash away,

No debt, no fine, no courthouse call,

No verdict hanging on the wall.

Just care that faces you, and then

Turns forward toward the coming when.

I'll stumble. Yes, I surely will.

And I will ask, and listen still.

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So what does your “sorry” mean? I ask

With gentle voice and no harsh mask.

Are you asking me to blame you less,

Because you blamed yourself first? Yes?