Three Little Words

I

am

sorry

yes, I need to say them to you

a hundred times more

than I will ever have the time for

I’ll grow old

and wither and die

before I can speak

those three little words

enough times to make

everything

right again

and you …

you need to speak them too

not to yourself

in your fantasy world

where dreams are real

and things like forgiveness

never need to happen

but to me

to my heart

that you damaged

in your zealous push

to make things happen

I wasn’t ready for.

that’s where it all went wrong.

so do we hold on

to our mistakes

to one another’s wounds

or do we replace

those three little words

with three other words

like

I

love

you

and let bygones

be bygones?