The Sorry Letter
I’m nine years old & it’s 6pm & I’ve been sent to my room.
I open a new pack of felt tips & grab some Victoria Plum paper.
It’s time for The Sorry Letter.
I want to be in the laughing living room,
watching Knight Rider with my brothers.
I don’t want to write The Sorry Letter.
But I’m a good writer, so I give it my best shot.
I draw a dragon in a hat & some wonky green flowers.
I draw a mini me kneeling,
with one long stick of black hair
& a downturned mouth
& little blue lines coming out of my eyes.
Inside a speech bubble I write –
I’m sorry for my behaviour mummy.
I’m sorry I left my dolls in the hallway.
I’m sorry for answering back facetiously.
(Spelt correctly).
Then I throw in a bit from Sunday Mass:
‘I’m sorry above all things for having offended thee’.
I draw a sad God with a thought bubble over his head
& the words ‘Miserable Sinner’.
This is my best ever Sorry Letter.
I make an envelope and decorate it
with vibrating hearts & flowers.
I dab it with Mum’s Lentheric Tweed.
Then, I tiptoe down, carefully avoiding the creaky stair.
I post my exceptional missal under the door.
From the other side, my brother whispers,
Look mum. Look down there!
There’s a rustle & a silence that goes on
for what feels like an aeon. I start climbing
back up the stairs, then sit on the halfway bit,
like a muppet or Christopher Robin.
There’s a tut and a mutter,
then a series of swift, determined rips.
Michelle Diaz has been published by 14 Magazine, Poetry Wales and numerous print and online journals. Her debut pamphlet The Dancing Boy was published by Against the Grain Press in 2019. She is working on her first collection.