I’m very English sometimes,
apologising
to the stranger staggering by,
shoulder swung into mine,
sorry caught in the air
with the dust cloud he trails.
So I’ll repeat
in case repetition makes up
for distance,
for an inability to find fire
until much later on
when I am a city or more
away
and still thinking about bone
and muscle
and a sharp snap of ‘move
now!’
No please.
Image by Grae Dickason from Pixabay
Carol J Forrester 
I think we’ve all been there…
I like that unattended “sorry” floating with the dust. I wonder where they all end up?
Your illustration is killer, and your poem is a lusty slice of an awkward moment. The arrogance and bad manners of most people today, from talking and being on their phones in theaters to apathy in public, is very troubling. For the moment I blame it on technology and Trump. Back in the 60’s we blamed it on the Russians.
Oh, this is so familiar, Carol! Last month I was returning from my daughter’s and, as I crossed the concourse at Waterloo, a rather large chap barged into my frozen shoulder causing terrible pain. I apologised to him and he didn’t even stop to see if I was OK, even though he’d thrown me a little; luckily, I had a suitcase attached to the other arm or I might have gone flying.
Last week I was on the Jubilee Line, and on two occasions people stood, offering me their seat. As I don’t appear ill, I assume I’m showing my age…
Still…there’s a lot to be said for English politeness….JIM
We English are forever apologising.
I’m so used to it now- it trips off my tongue
automatically! 🙂
What a perfect image-poem match! I even wondered which came first!
Yes, maybe an English thing, although I think some Americans have that habit too of apologizing when they are the ones that have been wronged. Not something that I’ve adopted though! I like how that word went hanging in the air, disappearing like vapor.
Yes, this really captures a passive reserved politeness that wants to explode later.
Hi poet!. Wanted to let you know I am “temporarily” sightless in my right eye from a retinal disease. It is a struggle fir me to write, but I will still wrote my pieces, going very slowly. Reading at any length is extremely difficult, and causes painful headache — so wanted to say thanks for contributing to OLN. But I won’t be able to read what you wrote, yet I wanted to visit. I spent a little time writing this best I could with one eye, i copied it, and I am pasting it in here to say hi. Got an operation coming up in about a week when the infection is down. Hopefully things will get back to normal.thanks, Rob