Etymology of an Apology

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
 

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