I’m sorry, I say to my daughter
in the passenger seat of the car where
she sits strapped after unloading
the slights of her teenage day.
It’s not your fault, Mami.
I know. I’m sorry in a lo siento kind of way.
This. Our ritual call and response since
she was a little girl after school lugging
a baritone case twice her size and a blue
backpack stuffed with slings and arrows.
This. The moment when I remind her that
the root of sorry is sorrow, not shame
A sorrow that the Old English
syllables of sorig cannot contain
like the sorrow of a mother’s heart
spoken in a mother tongue
simply, lo siento
I feel it, hija
all of your pain
shame less
Etymology of an Apology
Rosie Prohías Driscoll is a Cuban-American educator and poet living in Alexandria, Virginia. Her poems have appeared in numerous online and print publications, and she was a finalist for the 2020 Orison Poetry Prize. Her debut full-length poetry collection, Poised for Flight, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2022.